The Magnet

Photographer Jack Johns has just breezed in from a long Indonesia stint that culminated in him buying a plot of land out there. He’s tan in a way that the early spring sun in Cornwall just doesn’t stick. 

As long as I’ve known him, he’s always been going somewhere or coming back from somewhere else. His Instagram is awash with Condé Nast Traveler front covers and a smattering of high-end destinations that the average surfer will never go to, along with shoots for more conventional clients like Yeti and Finisterre. “It seems you are being paid to go to luxury resorts,” I say, “surfing perfect waves in the downtime?”

The question hangs in the air. We both laugh at the absurd good fortune of such a life.

With an approach honed by decades as a hardcore, top-level bodyboarder, Johns is a peripatetic traveler with a genuine love for the road, as likely to show up in an empty, faraway lineup as he is on the wave of the year at home in England. The seemingly effortless and idyllic photography he produces masks a serious work ethic and ambition, plus a dedication to setting goals and achieving them, all of it inspired by deep-seated curiosity. His photography career has developed to meet that desire—seeing the world and drinking it up.

“I left school at 16 to go on surf trips,” Johns says. “I didn’t get on very well academically. I owe it all to my parents for believing in me to work it out. Everything has evolved from the trust Mum and Dad put in me.”

A natural affinity for the ocean began early. His father, Mac, was a commercial diver, a surfer, and part of the Skewjack surf crew in Penwith. From a young age, Johns found himself in the deep with a dive rig, handing his dad tools underwater.

“Jack just has a natural feel for it out there in the sea,” says Mickey Smith, surf photographer and something of a mentor to Johns. “He seems to be aware of subtleties a lot of us miss. He’s super confident in himself and incredible to be around when the waves are good. He naturally knows which the best ones are and which ones to give away. He has that extra edge and awareness the best riders have.”

To say that Johns built a heavy reputation in Ireland is an understatement. It’s a matter of record that he caught the first wave at Aileen’s, one of Ireland’s big-wave amphitheaters, on a bodyboard.

“It was the first five, actually,” he remarks casually.

“I didn’t miss a session for the best part of 10 years,” Smith confirms, “so I had a pretty good front-row swimming seat on it all unfolding. Around winter 2010, of anyone passing through, he was at least matching in the skill set for those waves and his ability to read the ocean. Dan 

[Skajarowski] had started sitting way further inside to ride the heaviest double-ups in the gnarliest part of the reef, and Jack, Tommy [Gillespie], and the other local bodyboarders were soon sitting with him. It’s such a heavy spot to position yourself when there are sets over 10 feet. The bodyboarders really led the way on that vision for what was possible out at Aileen’s, and Jack was always at the cutting edge of it.”

“You just can’t have an ego bodyboarding,” Johns says.

What he means is that it hasn’t always come easy—far from it. The consequences are always there. Around the time Smith references above, Johns found himself in a bad spot at the Cliffs. He got clipped and driven deep, and his sinuses exploded. He surfaced just ahead of the next wave, blood spewing everywhere. His leash was snapped, but his bodyboard was right beside him. There was just enough time to grab it. During the next set, he was pushed down and pinned to the bottom, clutching on, saying over and over to himself, “If I survive this, I am giving up bodyboarding.”

“I basically go there for one surf a year now,” he says and laughs. “I need a lot less of it as I get older.”

“He just comes over when it’s pumping and gets really stuck in, goes super gnarly on the bodyboard and always gets some of the sicker ones of the session,” says Tom Lowe, Cornish big-wave surfer. “The whole time in the water, he’s always been screaming in happiness. That’s Jack in the water when it’s heavy—he just comes alive. I love surfing with him because he just makes the gnarly fun by being so stoked.”

Hanging with Smith and Lowe—surrounded by such creative and surf talent—it was a given that Johns would channel that energy outward into the world.

“When you see the photography, music, and general creative output of that crew, you can almost feel the energy of those seminal, early sessions at the Cliffs and Riley’s,” Cornish writer and surfer Pete Geall says, “like they made a pact to approach every creative endeavor with that passion and fervor. It’s electric when they get it right.”

When I first met Johns, around 2011, he was living in London, exploring the start of a creative career. While we’d liaise now and again to go and chase waves on the east coast or in Scotland, he seemed culturally immersed, deep in the craziness that the city brings. For surfers a long way from the ocean, that can chew you up and spit you out. But he stayed one step ahead of it.

He was working as a director of photography on documentaries, commercials, and music videos, traveling for shoots, out on tour with the British musician Ben Howard, surfing always there as a refresh button, Ireland a spiritual retreat. He started out taking pictures on the side, out of a desire to simplify things.

The result is a renowned and distinct photographic style. His images are unusual, effortless—the sort of thing you might see in exotic settings but not necessarily record. His angles are considered almost architectural, and they speak to people on many levels. They’re also a marketing director’s dream.

“I can struggle to articulate how I’m feeling, but I feel a lot,” Johns says. “That comes through in my photography.”

“Jack has a finely attuned eye for energy and liminal space,” Geall says. “His ability to capture and express that is why people pay large sums to commission his work.”

This maps well onto the surf experience, where his watermanship and his technical ability behind the lens yield surprisingly distinct results in a saturated field.

His approach to stand-up surfing is unusual too.

“I’m not sure how he would feel about me saying it,” Geall says, “but Jack brings a very specific, almost effeminate energy to surfing and the way he conducts himself on land. It’s a refreshing antidote to the jockish machismo that is frequently associated with the surf scenes at the kind of waves he enjoys.”

Over the last few winters, Johns has evolved his stand-up surfing in waves of consequence. His sessions at Porthleven, Cornwall’s finest reef, is the stuff of story. On days when most people are cautious and on the wrong side of enjoyment, Johns just plays with it.

“That comes from wanting to sit in the right spot,” he says, “but I do bring that bodyboard mentality, sitting behind the peak. I have a bit of a bubble around me out there.”

One huge, low-tide day, I stumbled on him trading waves with Geall. The wind was almost sideshore, the sets blown wide open. They both looked to be having way too much fun in the big, ugly, dangerous surf.

“I’ve spent many a wild session alone with him out there,” Geall says, “squinting into northwest gales and shouting at the Atlantic while big peaks rumble down the reef just outside the safety of the harbor. Every time I surf with Jack, I feel like a young boy exploring the woods with his best mate. Competitive, absolutely. But, above all, a sense of limitless camaraderie, which has become a cornerstone of our friendship.”

Among his friends, there’s a genuine happiness for what Johns has achieved.

“I’m always stoked to see his creations,” Smith says, “like a proud big brother—always will be. We’ve been through a lot, and no matter what, I love that boy forever.”

Johns has built an enviable roster of clients. These include super-luxury resorts like Aman, Lindenberg Hotels, and Ritz-Carlton, as well as high-end brands like Chanel and TAG Heuer. 

Among all of this work, he still manages to take core surf pictures regularly, always bringing a fresh eye and a masterful use of light. None of this is possible without the ability to deliver again and again in a highly demanding, competitive industry, alongside Johns’ obvious raw natural talent.

“His success doesn’t surprise me,” Lowe says. “Anything he does, he’s just really good at it.”

Watching Johns turn up and ride the biggest, best waves of the day—having barely seen the ocean for months—reiterates it. He sees the world a little differently and has made his life recording this unique perspective. In both surfing and photography, he inhabits a slightly different playing field than most of us.

[Feature image: I spent two winter months on the north coast of Scotland, getting battered by storm after storm. It felt like Groundhog Day. The cold, howling winds are intense, reaching up to 90 miles per hour. Occasionally, it would switch offshore and blow against the churned northern sea]