Today we’d like to introduce you to John R. Legg.
Hi John, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’ve always been interested in photography and history. As a young boy, folks could find me climbing on top of Civil War-era monuments at Antietam in Maryland and posing for a photograph. Or, you could have found me scourging flea markets in search of a fun film camera to bring on a vacation to Disney World. I always loved to document my experiences. When I turned 21, I moved from Michigan to Georgia. My cousin, Josh, a guitarist, often played at a few different blues clubs in Macon, Georgia. After a few gigs, I started to take photos with my cell phone, capturing fun moments to look back on. After purchasing my first camera, a point-and-shoot digital camera, I realized how much fun music photography was and that I need to do it more often.
I bought my first DSLR camera and started shooting concerts around Macon. Primarily at local bars and nightclubs, I learned the ins and outs of the music scene. With a cousin so well-known in Middle Georgia, I was privileged enough to follow him and find myself with all-access. I had a blast shooting concerts, but that excitement grew when Brantley Gilbert’s management team reached out to me in March 2015. Brantley Gilbert’s “Let It Ride” Tour stopped in Macon for a show, and I had media access to shoot the first three songs of the performance. From that moment, a music career blossomed that would take me from Georgia to Nashville to Madison, Wisconsin, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida photographing country artists.
At that Brantley Gilbert concert, I captured a photo that still remains in my heart. His management took the photo and printed it on his 2016 tour t-shirt, a shirt that can still be purchased today. Backed with a bright orange light, the tattooed Brantley Gilbert leaned towards the crowd with his tongue stinking out. I captured the moment perfectly. From that point, I followed Brantley Gilbert around the nation, photographing his shows for his promoter, Frank Productions. At the same time, The Blue Indian, a local music magazine (now discontinued) wanted me to cover music performances around the south. Using my experience with Brantley Gilbert, I started photographing large country music festivals, such as CMA Fest in Nashville and Tortuga Music Fest in St. Pete Beach, Florida. Many artists shared my photos and my name grew as a music photographer. With the success, I wanted to change. Wedding photography was calling my name. It was the power of capturing someone’s special day and their love. Knowing that my photos would hang on family’s walls for generations made me want to book more and more weddings. So, I did. Between 2016 and 2022, I’ve probably documented 100 or so weddings; each different and fully of moments that I remember and use to grow as a photographer.
When Covid-19 brought me to Strongsville, Ohio for lockdown, I knew that I needed to get my photography business growing in that area near Cleveland. After a few years away because of the pandemic, I am now booking weddings and other photo gigs in the greater Cleveland area. I also am working towards a Ph.D. in American History at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Now that I’m solely writing my book-length dissertation, I plan to use Strongsville as my home base to provide Ohio, or the rest of the country, with unique, timeless photography services.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The transition from music to wedding photography took time, energy, and patience. Moving from an industry where you captured real-time moments with music blaring next to your ears, to an industry where you’re the professional capturing one-of-a-kind photos of client’s special day, required time to learn and adapt. Rather than letting your music work speak for itself, I needed to learn how to market myself in a world of thousands of wedding photographers. What made me so special? It was a constant struggle as I figured out what worked and what didn’t work. Specifically related to style, I recognized that my candid photos stood out as a defining feature of my photographer. Sure, I pose people in photos, but I am more interested in the real, honest, unfiltered reactions. Mastering this style took time and energy, shooting many photo sessions for free or discounting wedding packages so I could build a portfolio. A photo’s more than a group of people posed, I learned. It provides moments to capture the love, the presence, the company of those in the photo. When I realized and emphasize this approach in my promotions, I realized this was exactly what wedding clients looked for.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
As stated earlier, I’ve working towards a Ph.D. in American history, and whenever I get the chance, I bridge my interests with history and photography together. I’ve done a few things that I’m pretty proud of. Such as lecturing on the practice and impact of photography during the American Civil War – the first major conflict covered heavily by photographers – to publishing a photobook on historic sites in the Carolinas with Dr. Niels Eichhorn (a professor and editor at H-CivWar). However, in my mind, the most crowning personal achievement came from publishing an essay for the National Council on Public History’s History@Work publication. This essay contributed to an important (and still ongoing) debate over the ethics of hosting weddings on former plantation spaces—places where enslaved people faced trauma, violence, and bondage during seventeenth through nineteenth centuries.
In this essay, I describe my own personal perspective of working weddings on former plantation spaces as both a photographer and as a historian. In most cases, I argue, wedding clients have no real understanding of the violent history that took place in or on that wedding venue space. Most venues do not include historical waysides or exhibit panels to contextualize their landscape’s history. If owners do describe the history, it’s often through the eyes of the plantation owner’s wealth and prestige. Wedding ceremonies on these spaces, too, erase the trauma that bled into the soil of those places reliant to slave labor. I’m proud of this essay as it challenged critics who believed that the “past needs to stay in the past,” even though many of the weddings I photographed on such spaces continued a cycle of controversial and problematic ways to promote white privilege on ground where enslaved people suffered. This essay signals a promise I made to myself: I would not partake in weddings on former plantation spaces unless those sites are open to contextualizing the past. Doing so recognizes that weddings are not just a façade to celebrate a couple’s special day. It shows an effort to challenge systemic efforts to try and forget the past and all its contention.
John R. Legg, “A romantic union? Thoughts on plantation weddings from a photographer/historian,” History@Work, February 24, 2020, https://ncph.org/history-at-work/plantation-weddings/.
To quote William Faulkner, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” From here on out, I do my best to recognize the land and space that weddings or other photo sessions occupy. In many instances, we work on land once stolen from Indigenous people, used and labored on by enslaved people, or some other form of inequality that has been erased by the pompous nature of beautiful, elegant wedding ceremonies. No matter how many weddings I document or how many concerts I capture, the connection between the past and the present remains the single thing that I’m proud of as a photographer and historian.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
In terms of photography mentors, I think social media has helped tremendously. I follow some major wedding photographers that provide so much free material and information on their social media channels. Jordan Voth, Benj Haisch, and Sam Hurd, to name a few, are my biggest unofficial mentors. They don’t know me, but for years I have followed their work and the helpful advice they share to their hundreds of thousands of followers. In my experience, these people have been willing to help with my questions or ideas. They all offer or participate in workshops that help photographers grow as artists, business people, and community members.
For those interested in music photography, my best advice is to get out there and shoot. Go to local outdoor music festivals and bring your camera. Capture the band, the audience, the details. If you’re comfortable, send an album to the band’s manager and see if they’re interested in working with you more in the future. This happened many times for me. Also, reach out to promoters that cover these bands; while the musicians might be too busy to deal with this, these promoters seek out people willing to cover events for them. Nothing’s more thrilling than standing on stage with a band or in their photo pit, hearing the music, and enjoying the moment.
Pricing:
- Wedding Package: $2800 (no time limit, complimentary engagement session, 750-1000 edited photos delivered digitally, optional print package)
- Headshot, family, graduation package: $250.00 (1-2 hours, 50-75 edited photos delivered digitally, optional print package)
- Engagement package: $250.00 (1-2 hours, 75-100 edited photos delivered digitally, optional print package)
- Music package ($350.00 per show)
Contact Info:
- Email: johnleggphoto@gmail.com
- Website: johnleggphotography.mypixieset.com
- Instagram: @johnleggwedding
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/johnleggphotography
- Twitter: @theJohnLegg
- Other: Other IG: @IamJohnLegg
