Vale legendary photographer and director John Ashenhurst: If there are legends John was certainly up there near the top

Many in the Asia-Pacific advertising and production industry will be saddened to hear of the passing of legendary Australian photographer and director John Ashenhurst, who passed away in his sleep last week in Coffs Habour, Australia. Legendary Australian director Peter Cherry, now based in the US, contacted CB to pay this tribute to his friend of many years.

John was born in India where his father was in the Army.

John worked as a young man in Melbourne and worked with famous photographer/director Patrick Russel. At that time John was a lettering artist, but with Patrick he soon became a photographer and moved to Sydney (as did Patrick) to become one of Australia’s great photographers and eventually a Director.

In that time he did a lot of work with his friend Ian Batey (Batey Ads) where they both created Singapore Girls (Singapore Airlines) where John both photographed the ads and shot the commercial as Director DOP.

Singapore Airlines became a huge success and soon was the premium airline in Asia. And that made John a big name also.

It wasn’t long before he refurbished (beautifully) a boat in Sydney called Kintail then sailed around the world with his wife and kids, occasionally returning to direct TV commercials.

He then joined Angela Bray’s original “Film Business” and pretty much became a full time Director, doing a of work all over the world with Angela as his Producer.

Angela then created Independent films with the help of myself as a Director. It was a little later when John started being a Director of Photographer for me.

John and I were old mates and a great team. We also travelled the world for over ten years doing work with Megan Gale (Omnicom) GM, Ford, Coke and many other clients for Australia, Singapore, US, Italy, China, Thailand and others I forget.

John and I retired ten years ago, I moved back from NY to Scottsdale in Arizona. And John went to Coffs Harbour, sold his home, and started working on another boat which wasn’t quite completed at the time of his death. Again it was also a beautiful boat, and John (in his perfectly art directed work shed) worked on it almost everyday.

John had a hereditary heart problem and recently had a pacemaker put in. Unfortunately it was too late and after a few weeks John died peacefully sleeping on his boat. So in many ways he died doing what he loved most.

If there are legends in Australia John was certainly up there near the top, he “felt” the camera, in fact he used his old Canon as a light meter for film, and just knew what worked on digital film. Even John’s happy snaps on location were perfectly framed and perfectly exposed (always a stop under)

Angela Bray, who in shock, said to me that she always thought John was immortal. He sort of was, he always looked the same, never changed visually much, and his attitude was always of a young guy. He was immortal when you think about his legacy. Certainly he was a Legend.

Finally we had a dream, and that dream was a particular restaurant on the water near a castle in Naples. We were going to meet there and stay all day eating and drinking. Maybe one day we will, sadly not in this lifetime.