Joe Doherty – The Johnny Chronicles

Review by Hans Hickerson ·

The Johnny Chronicles, An Anthology of Love and Absurdity, is a good reminder that one way to evaluate art is to look at how it communicates or offers consequential human experience. The Johnny Chronicles definitely does this. The book fits into the narrative / documentary photobook tradition and you can argue that it connects with viewers more directly and meaningfully than others that might be categorized as high art.

The Johnny Chronicles is a portrait of photographer Joe Doherty’s brother John, the youngest of 8 siblings, who was born with Down syndrome. In 66 photographs and extensive texts, mostly in the form of easy-to-read captions, Doherty tells the story of how John brought and kept his dysfunctional family together, especially after his parents died at a relatively young age. Woven into John’s personal story is the family story as well as background explaining how photographer Joe Doherty got started doing photography.

We see John in all of the 66 black and white photographs in the book. We see him mostly from pre-school to high school age in the 1960s and 70s, with a single photo of him as a middle-aged man along with an image of similar vintage on the back cover. The text and photos are by turns serious, heartfelt, humorous, uplifting, touching, lighthearted, and whimsical. Unselfconscious and uninhibited, John, “Johnny,” was an ideal subject for a photographer. We see him fishing, posing for the camera, playing the piano, taking photographs with his older brother’s camera, watching TV, playing with his puppets, hugging his siblings, competing in Special Olympics races, blowing soap bubbles, racing downhill in his “plutonium powered” toy car, exploring the outdoors, riding in his “Moosewagon,” and playing invented games with imaginary characters such as the Balrog of Cachuma.

The book’s design is varied and supports the narrative nicely. The photos come in a variety of size and page placements and are rendered in satisfyingly rich tones. Some of the caption texts are brief and others longer, and all have headlines that neatly summarize the contents.

“Chronicle” is an apt description for the book, but the story is not told in a linear fashion. The book reads like a magazine article or photo album where the information overlaps and accumulates multiple details and gradually fleshes out a complete picture.

An accessible and engaging look at a differently abled family member, The Johnny Chronicles shares an example of how our limitations do not need to prevent us from forming loving human connections and relationships. It documents a person whose presence alone made a big difference in the lives of others.

Hans Hickerson, Editor of the PhotoBook Journal, is a photographer and photobook artist from Portland, Oregon.

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Joe Doherty – The Johnny Chronicles

Photographer: Joe Doherty (born 1959, lives in Los Angeles)

Language: English

Text: Joe Doherty, Hall Kelley

Design: Hall Kelley

Printing: Marathon Press

Printed hardcover; perfect binding; 66 pages; 66 black and white photographs; 9 x 9 inches; ISBN 979-8-9910802-0-0

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Articles and photographs published in the PhotoBook Journal may not be reproduced without the permission of the PhotoBook Journal staff and the photographer(s). All images, texts, and designs are under copyright by the authors and publishers.