John Naar

He is known for his work on Bomb It (2007), Fades with Age (2008) and Style Wars (1983). He was married to Beverly Russell, Ellen Hartt and Ruth Kurle.

From 2000 to mid-2017, Naar was based in Trenton, New Jersey. In 2013, the New Jersey State Museum mounted an exhibition of his work entitled “Jon Naar: Signature Photography.”

Other book projects followed, providing Naar with an opportunity to return to researching and writing on scientific topics, especially environmental themes. Jacques Cousteau wrote the introduction to Naar's 1973 book, Design for a Limited Planet, which featured interviews and photographs with pioneers of solar energy in the American Southwest and sold over 100,000 copies. As an early advocate of solar energy—he helped mount the first solar collectors on the roof of the White House—Naar later became president of the New York Metropolitan Solar Energy Society, and served for two years (1996–1998) as deputy director of renewable energy programs at the United States Agency for International Development. As a consultant, he worked with entities such as NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) and SELCO (Solar Electric Light Company India). In 1991, the American Library Association included Design for a Livable Planet (coauthored by Naar and his son Alex) among its “Best Books of the Year for Young Adults”. His 2005 survey collection, Getting the Picture, was included in the “Best Designed Books 2006” exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

By the 1970s, Naar's reputation was well established and he was redirecting his energies toward on-location corporate work for a diverse range of clients. Then in 1972, a commission for the London-based design firm Pentagram morphed into a full-length book project, with the 1974 release of The Faith of Graffiti (UK title Watching My Name Go By)—the first book-length examination of New York City graffiti art. Featuring an introduction by novelist Norman Mailer, the controversial collection would become “like a bible to later graffiti artists,” in the words of Brian Wallis, chief curator at New York's International Center of Photography. Naar “legitimized” graffiti “a decade earlier than anyone else, and he came at it with a graphic design sensibility—he understood color and composition and bold design.” It is for this groundbreaking series that Naar himself remains in demand, with numerous recent retrospectives and a 2007 collection, The Birth of Graffiti, which includes 130 previously unpublished photographs from the original assignment.

Over the next decade and a half, Naar worked as a medical science writer and editor in the Public Interest department of Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, then for five years as managing editor of the World Wide Medical News service, a division of the ethical pharmaceutical advertising agency William Douglas McAdams. From 1957, he directed international marketing for Pharmacraft Laboratories, a division of Joseph E. Seagram Corporation. In 1964, after a year in Munich as general manager of the American-French cosmetic company Germaine Monteil, he launched his career as a professional photographer.

Through the 1950s, armed with a Super Ikonta rangefinder camera and later a Praktica single-lens reflex, Naar had been developing his eye as a “weekend” photographer, roving his Greenwich Village neighborhood and seeking out subject matter while on foreign corporate assignments. It was not until influential photographers Nickolas Muray and André Kertész—both impressed by his hobbyist portfolio—offered encouragement, that he resolved to seek wider exposure as a photographer. A series of street scenes Naar shot in Mexico City in 1962 was featured in a 1963 solo exhibition in Coyoacan titled “El Ojo de un Estranjero.” His 23-page photo essay on Germany, 20 years after the death of Adolph Hitler, appeared in the Italian design magazine Domus. New York Times critic Joseph Deschin, reviewing Naar's 1965 one-man show at New York University's Loeb Student Center, extolled his “flair for design and an eye for the unexpected … his pictures generate the kind of excitement that one associates with discovery of newness in the familiar.” The striking image “Shadows of Children on Swings” was selected by Ivan Dmitri for the Metropolitan Museum's “Photography in the Fine Arts” exhibition, and for its permanent collection. Within the span of a few years, Naar had not only transformed himself into a professional photographer, but was in demand as a contributor to major publications like The New York Times, The Saturday Evening Post, Vogue, Fortune, Elle, and Schöner Wohnen.

John Naar was born on May 5, 1920 in London as Leonard John Naar.