Andrew Castrucci

Dear john
you were one of my closest friends
I miss you dearly
i’ve known you for over 22 years
john you left us to early
I wasn’t ready for you to leave
I thought you were going to make another comeback
My muhammid aLI FROM LOUIEVILLE
You always had the strength to bounce back- I wasn’t ready to say goodbye
I still owed you that spaghetti sauce
We were calling each other about getting together to photo a guerilla art piece we were going to write “America Berserk” on the wall 100 times till you couldn’t read it – until America berserk turned into a blackened sprayed unreadable overlapping pattern. I had the spray panit. He had the camera.
You kept telling me you got to give me more notice -I got to go visit my sister
Or the next time your were to weak to go out
The last time I saw you I gave you one of my fedora hats. I had a collection of my grandfather’s hats
When I first met you it was thru one of your photos it was about 1985/86
A strange photo of colonel sanders form Kentucky fried chicken in an open casket
You had balls to sneak into his wake and take this shot
You always had the guts to take the unusual shot/unusual perspective
Your photo was juxtaposed with a group of artist’s /poets in a book called anti -utopia
I was curious to meet the guy that took this photo
You were a part of a group of artist that c
ame from louieville Kentucky in the early 80’s

we later worked closely on your house is mine squatter and homeless project
Also guerilla performances at met
John also photographed my wedding in 2001 and various other family affairs
He recently photographed my mother and fathers 50th wedding anniversary
my mom was a big fan of john ranard
you always kept it a secret how sick you were
“I don’t want to tell you about bad news”, he would say
he would only tell me when he was bouncing back and things were looking good
Besides setting up john with commercial projects
we collaborated on various art projects thru the 22 yeaRS I’VE KNOWN HIM
JOHN was my photographer
My ALI from louieville
i have over 500 of his photos of john’s
I was a true believer in you

there are basically 8-10 important photographers that documented the lower east side from 1976  to present
marlis momber
Martha cooper
Tom warren
Clayton patterson
Chris flash (from the shadow)
John panley
To name a few
John was different from these photographers
He tresendend photojournalism –john’s work was more mystical
A fine line between realism and abstract forms
John unusual subject matter, perspective, a dramitic cropping stood him out from great photojournalism of our time. John was more of a surrealist- a magic realist.
He reminded me of a story when a photographer came into this African village and20set up a portrait of the tribal chief
Before the photographer snapped the portrait, “the chief said are you
going to steal my soul or give me soul? “
John was the kind of photographer that gave you soul

Ranard could take a wedding photo showing 90% of the persons back (no facial features)  greeting a younger guest and this photo still had this magical spirit.
this photo was actual my father greeting his granddaughter
As we were hanging johns show at tribes I saw john’s work in retrospect as a pyramid: the LES work, the Russian work, and middle America (the boxing series)
And outside this pyramid were the recent self-portraits, his most personal work. And than outside this circle was his collaborations w/artists like david hammons/ krizytof wodiczko
Than outside this was his commercial work that he rarely took on like an unusual wedding
he kept telling me I don’t have a long time to live and I have to to finish this new work
I naively always thought I would get old with john ,2 old men arguing about art and politics
John I’ll miss your stories the ones you kept in your pocket everytime I saw you
You always had a good joke
Or some informative opinion of some important absurd news event
At this time john just left his wife and moved into the squats
We were both deeply involved w/ the squatter community
“whats the first thing you do when you move into a squatE2 , john said
Quit your job”
John finally surrended after giuliani brought in the tanks in one of the final symbolic evictions on the LES
while I was trying to get him into bullet space he moved into subsidized housing on east 2nd st. and rebuild his dark room for the 5th time

john was a photographer  that took chances -he was in dangerous situations- he dared go where very few roomed
either it being in Russia  in post-soviet union transition (after the wall fell)or in the middle of a riot on the lower east side-he went to this edge and saw things that gave his photos this other dimension
from shooting galleries outside Moscow to hardcore off the path boxing sub-culture of middle America

one time at 6 am on april 1,  when the sun just starting to come up. I read a manifesto in front of the metropolitan museum of art and knocked over 20 squatter piss bottles ,poor man’s gold, a manifesto in reaction to a museum of dead artists, some of the Rembrandts were fakes, a homage to Van Gogh’s yellow sunflowers, a protest to Giuliani’s regime ,a 10 year anniversary of Tompkins Square riots, the day they acquitted the police officers that shot Diallo.

this was a 5-10 minute guerilla piece john photoed and documented
after most of us got away jonh stayed and kept shooting I ran back and screamed john! we are going to get arrested we got to get out of her
e.
I left he stayed to shoot the aftermath barely escaping arrest

When john did a 2 person show at bullet space w/ bruce witsipe (one of the leaders of the group of artists from louiville-) (R.I.P. bruce ) they argued a lot
Bruce spoke about during the Russian revolution there were 2 kinds of artists
There were the social realist and there were kandinsky, el lissitsky and malevelvich (the suprematists),
They debated the content of narration and propaganda  vs. art
The abstract vs. realism- how the less narrative works had more of a metaphysical meaning in their work while still being honest to the revolution
Less overtly political, but more powerful.
John played the devil’s advocate and stuck up for the realists.
Even though his work was in the light Rodchenko and deep down inside
He knew he was not a realist
Somewhere in heaven or hell or where ever you guys are- I can still here you and bruce still arguing.
john transcended this mirror of life –its hard to explain?
He was just different from the rest of the photographers
As a painter /sculptor with photography we battle with this imitation of life
We reject the camera-we try to transcend this realism -this machine- this flat surface-(like a david smith sculpture)
but with john I saw something different!
I compared him to Weegee (Arthur fellig)
He wasn’t just recording a historical event
In reality there are 3 dimensions. In quantum physics t
here are 11 dimensions
With John ‘s photos he went beyond this 3rd dimension
He gave a soul -a spirit -an aura to his images
You could see the ghosts between the glass and frame

One day he was taking a large group photo at our wedding -about 80 of us.
He had a camera he bought on the black market outside Moscow, some sort of post- WWII sliding wide angle lens that would move side to side as he shot this large horizontal family grouping.
The camera started to malfunction and the audience starting complaining to hurry up and shot the god damn photo.
I calmed down the group saying this guy is a great artist be patient.
John shot the most incredible photos for this special night.
This took place at Angel Orensanz place on Ludlow street.
John had his magic working that night.
Our last hurray. This was one month before sept. 11
We sang god bless America for the last time with a Italian festival band we hired off mulberry st. john captured a magical realism of this night
It felt like The world turned upside down a month later
With john gone /an era has gone- we are in a new city
A new century

John the next time I make my grandmothers secret spaghetti sauce I’ll think of you
The sauce is on its way to 2nd st. and B apt. 3d
or the next time I put that fedora hat
The next time I see the young 17-year-old ALI from louivillle I’ll think of you the next time=2
0I look at one of your photos…
I miss you john

I was actual in a situation at a club on the les in 1985when I was working w/ the bad brains when a local well known photographer was shooting a portrait of HR (sort of the god-father of hardcore punk) he said to the photographer w/ his dreads pushed away from his eyes “in a staring glance -are you going to steal my soul…
Over the years and at this moment i think a lot of this incident and see how if
Ranard would have been in this situation- how he would of treated this chief different
john you stood out from the rest of the LES photographers
you were a true artist
a true shaman
I miss you dearly
your friend and brother
a.c.

john ranard selected works
tribes gallery thru sept. 30
285 east 3rd st.nyc 10009
www.tribes.org