Jetstream will wow crowd

Jun 27 2007 By David Whetstone, The Journal

He hides behind a camera and a fantastic alias. David Whetstone meets photographer Johnny Jetstream.

He is a photographer with an interesting portfolio and a new exhibition, but there's another reason for being curious about Johnny Jetstream.

Need I say more? For someone intent on changing his name, Johnny has chosen well. It's arresting, it's racy, it will set you apart from the crowd.

On the other hand, it is something to live up to. Waiting to interview Johnny at Red Box Gallery in Newcastle, I am not sure whether to expect a real-life superhero or a neo-50s rock 'n' roller in the Billy Fury mould. Actually, Johnny is neither of these. He's a 38-year-old Geordie, tall, thoughtful, quietly-spoken and an architecture graduate of Newcastle University who started taking photographs seriously in 2004 when the digital revolution took hold.

He's not crazy about having his photograph taken, although you can see his reflection in a window in one of his Red Box photos.

Neither does he want his real name in the paper, or at least the name he used before he was Johnny. "It's to do with the travel," he says of the Jetstream moniker. "I'm quite private so it keeps it fairly anonymous."

That's debatable. For complete anonymity Johnny Smith might have been a better bet. But I agree to play the game.

It was in 2004 that Johnny was persuaded by his wife to go in for The Big Art Challenge, a programme on Channel 5. From thousands of submissions, his piece was picked out. It provided the impetus for him to concentrate on art - and he does describe himself as an artist rather than a photographer.

The exhibition at Red Box is called Urban Deserts and it is Johnny Jetstream's view of the world as he has found it on travels in America, Europe and Japan.

"It's not about the perfect shot," he tells me. "I'm not one of these who gets up at five in the morning to catch the sun at a particular position in the sky. It's more spontaneous than that.

"But all my work is to do with architecture and about the environment really."

Many of the shots in the exhibition are seductively colourful with blues and yellows that seem a tiny bit impossible. It's reminiscent of the travel brochure or the glossy lifestyle mag.

He admits to a bit of Photoshop manipulation of colours but only to highlight the artificial nature of much that he has seen.

On the edge of the Navajo reserve in Arizona, there's a sign saying "The Navajo Nation" beneath a huge, sun-coloured M, symbol of the ubiquitous McDonald's takeaway.

"It's beautiful with those bright colours," muses Johnny. "It's not right, a sign like that in the desert, but in a way it does look great. There are signs like that all over the desert."

Another photograph shows a smart speed boat on tow behind a car, the whole rig shimmering in the heat of a Phoenix night. "Phoenix is in the middle of the desert but they're just obsessed with boats," says Johnny. "There are a few little lakes but nothing for a boat of that calibre."

He is not critical and his photos are arresting but the story they tell can be depressing.

Take palm trees. They look so good against the blue skies of Arizona but apparently they are environmentally unfriendly, sucking gallons of moisture out of the soil. This is cactus country.

Or swimming pools. Desert hotels in the States all have them but, while blue and inviting, they are chemical cocktails. "I wouldn't go in them," says Johnny.

Architecture remains a passion and he follows the work of one firm, Arquitectonica, like others follow a football team. The flat planes of city blocks and the wasteful ribbon development along American highways catch his eye. And looking at his uncannily two dimensional photos of Tokyo, he wonders how there's room for the people. His favourite shot is a back view of a man on a platform as a train pulls in. He is adopting "that very modern pose" associated with texting. It's Tokyo but it could be anywhere.

Urban Deserts by Johnny Jetstream, Red Box Gallery, St Nicholas' Chare, Newcastle, until August 23 (open Tuesday to Thursday, 10am to 4pm).