Born and raised in Los Angeles County, Jim McCrary has been a professional photographer here for nearly 50 years. Primarily self-taught beginning in 1952, he also attended Pasadena City College and Art Center College of Design with photography majors. He worked for many years as staff photographer for the Jerry O'Brien Studio, the Fred Poore Studio and in the photography department of Rockwell International during the 1950's and 1960's. Jim joined A&M Records in 1967 as chief photographer, where in the next seven years he shot over 300 album covers along with related publicity and advertising work. Among his many classic album covers are Carole King's "Tapestry", Lee Michaels' "5th" and Joe Cocker's "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" and many others. From 1974 through 1990 he operated his own studio on La Brea Avenue in Hollywood, specializing in technically difficult photographic still-life problems, as well as difficult personality portraits.
| Self Portraits 1952-2001 © Jim McCrary All Rights Reserved |
Those who see his portfolio are generally impressed with the diversity of his photographic background. In his half-century as a professional photographer, McCrary has shot nearly everything: album covers, annual reports, movie posters, advertisements, brochures, catalogs, glamor portraits, weddings, newspapers, macro shots of computer chips, 11x14" camera still-lifes to surreptitious US Army "Intelligence" spy camera photographs. His work has won many awards from the Los Angeles & New York Art Directors Clubs, and has appeared in several "Best" Album Cover books, Communication Arts magazine, as well as several Graphis Annuals and Graphis Posters Annuals.
His clients have included: A&E Network, VH-1 & MTV Networks, Rockwell International, GTE Sprint, Panavision, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, Eastman Kodak, Celestron Telescopes, Roland Synthesizers, Tokina Lenses, Eldon Office Products, Getty Oil, Union Oil, Litton Industries, Martin-Marietta, Dewar's Scotch, Pacific Bell, Baxter Pharmaseal, Itoya Pens, Kaiser Chemical, Hitachi Computers, Knudsen, Levi Strauss, Redken, Monterey Farming, Great Western Bank, Hondo Guitars, Kawai Pianos, Las Vegas' Bellagio Resort, and recording studios such as: A&M, MCA, CBS, Motown, UA, MGM, Rhino and Capitol.
Jim in early 1995 combined his extensive knowledge of the use of computers with his traditional photography background and until mid-1996 offered his services as a digital imaging professional at Zzyzx Visual Systems, where he was in charge of designing, operating and expanding their state of the art digital imaging photography studio in Santa Monica. He continues to be a leading photographer on the cutting edge of both traditional and digital imaging photographic art and technology as a free-lance digital photography consultant working closely with clients primarily in the Glendale/Burbank media district.
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Contact Jim via Phone, Fax, or e-mail for information on archival pigment prints signed by the photographer up to 24" x 36" available without reproduction rights. Reproduction rights are also available and are quoted based on the parameters of each use.
All Photographs © Jim McCrary, All Rights Reserved.
This website is designed, maintained, and under continual construction by Jim McCrary.
