Jamie Johnson

I grew up in New York City and spent most of my childhood and teenage years pursuing a dream of theatre and film. I attended The Professional Children’s School, a school for professionally working children in the entertainment business. After years of work on soap operas and TV commercials, I headed to Los Angeles to continue my dream.

Often times we find our passion when we least expect. As a struggling actress, I turned to photography to nourish my body and soul; it was a hobby I had enjoyed throughout my life. I hardly remember a moment in my childhood that I did not have a camera in my backpack. I made spare money shooting headshots for my friends and colleagues. Then one day I photographed some children and my world changed. With my lens I captured the purest of images, children full of hope and innocence, playfulness and pain. I had found my calling.

My curiosity grew and I knew I wanted more. I quickly abandoned my dream of acting to focus on this incredible passion of photography. I built an incredible business in Los Angeles, nearly over-night, shooting celebrity children and Hollywood families.

Seven years ago, a request by a foundation in Los Angeles to photograph the homeless families of our city, deepened my passion. More than 15,000 children in Los Angeles are homeless and I soon found myself walking the streets with my camera and capturing the lives of these “forgotten people”. The photos, not only were an incredible spiritual journey for me, but also created a solid following of my work from galleries and magazines.

I have expanded my dreams of photographing children of all countries and life styles. I have recently photographed the children from the rural villages in the jungles of Laos and orphanages of Cambodia to the slums of Bangkok and most recently the children who live in the dumps in Mexico. I have been lucky to have my work shown in many galleries in the United States and published in several magazines. I hope to continue my journey and share my photographs with the world.