JIM HERRINGTON

ABOUT

Jim Herrington has taken pictures since he was a teenager in North Carolina, when he met and photographed the big-band clarinet titan Benny Goodman. Since then, Herrington has lived and worked in Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, Santa Fe, and East Berlin, which might account for the cool statelessness with which his work proceeds. For Herrington, a portrait of Willie Nelson and a study of one of Bette Davis’ snubbed-out cigarettes comprise parts of the same waiting world of possibility. His style, often but not exclusively rendered in black and white, tends toward the stark. But it’s the kind of manner where concentration unfolds with such focus and intensity that the lack of ornament or device accrues generous, sometimes sensuous levels of expression. Inspired by history and storytelling — “Stories drive my whole approach,” he says — Herrington’s photographs convey their subjects with a concise lucidity. But Herrington’s eye and techniques add to that: His celebrities often take on the glamour of the everyday, and a sense of the exotic frequently charges his ostensibly common objects and locations. Herrington’s work has appeared in major publications in the United States and Europe, on album covers, and in national advertising. Aside from his ongoing documentation of the greats and near misses of the music world, Herrington, an avid mountain climber, is at work on a series of portraits of the legends of American mountaineering.

PARTIAL CLIENT LIST

Magazines

Vanity Fair

Rolling Stone

Esquire

GQ

Outside

Entertainment Weekly

US

People

SKI

National Geographic

Spin

New York Times

Time

Newsweek

Men’s Journal

Smithsonian

Forbes

Record Labels

Warner  Bros.

Capitol

RCA

Sony

Atlantic

Virgin

Dreamworks

Arista

MCA

EMI

Universal

Geffen

Sire

Advertising

Trek Bikes

Gibson Guitars

Wild Turkey Bourbon

Eastpak

Hanson/Dodge

The Thomas Collective

Planet Propaganda

Hoffman York

Celtic Agency

Stir Advertising

Reimler Agency

Eichenbaum Agency

All photographs © Jim Herrington

All text, unless otherwise noted © Jim Herrington