The work of veteran photographer Jon Randolph is defined by his generosity of spirit.
Randolph was a staff photographer for WTTW Channel 11 between 1972 and 1984 and from 1984 to 2006 he freelancer for the Chicago Reader newspaper. He is a soft spoken man whose words are framed by a deep country cadence. You do not hear the bells of ego.
“People react to pictures according their experience, their story,” Randolph explained during a lengthy interview at the North Side studio of Chicago photographer Paul Natkin. That is such an altruistic view. “It is true,” Randolph said. “Art is full of references that evoke something in you. I sometimes go through pictures and ask people, “What do you see in that? They tell me. And then, ‘Do you like it or not like it? And why?’ It’s fascinating. People come up with legitimate stuff that I never would have seen.”
Randolph was born on Dec. 26, 1946 at Lying-in hospital at the University of Chicago in Hyde Park. His family moved to Evanston in 1954. His mother Bernadine was a homemaker. His father John George Randolph was a Tribune copy editor, short-story writer, and paperback book editor. And he often laid out the picture page at the back of the sports section. During his years at the downtown Chicago Central YMCA alternative high school young Jon was a Tribune copy boy. His father died of a heart attack in 1962. He was 55 years old.
During Randolph’s junior high years in Evanston he had a friend who built a darkroom in his family’s basement. “I saw the image come up and that was enough,” he said. I got away from it for awhile but, got back into it in high school but it was really in college I got deep into it.”
Randolph attended Blackburn College in the old mining town of Carlinville, about 45 miles south of Springfield, Il. He chose Blackburn after reading about it in the Christian Science Monitor. Randolph hitchhiked from Chicago to Carlinville. “When I told the Director of Admissions she was horrified,” Randolph said. “I don’t think she wanted to let me in. But my scores were too good.” Notable Blackburn students include Bruce Pavitt, co-founder of Sub Pop Records and novelist Mary Hunter Austin. Randolph graduated in 1970 with a B.A. in English literature.
Randolph had never been to Carlinville before that visit. But he knew the area because his grandfather had two farms in Highland (pop. 9000} about 40 southeast of Carlinville. Randolph spent summers there between the ages of 6 and 12. With his sister, Linnea, he owns a 261 acre farm and rents out the land. Randolph still goes downstate three or four times a year to check in on the corn, soybeans and wheat. “I’m not a farmer,” he declared. “I get to ride a tractor. Farmers actually work.” But this is where a stranger begins to sense Randolph’s rural manner. Most of Randolph’s visits to Carlinville revolve around seeing his old art professor Mitch Clark, who was 86 years old in the autumn of 2023.
After college Randolph found work at the old Triangle Camera near Broadway and Addison in Chicago. Randolph met the iconic documentary photographer Bo Natkin (father of Paul) as well as Channel 11 photographer Steve Hale. In 1972 Hale’s assistant quit and he hired Randolph, and six months later Hale quit Channel 11. “And they put me in charge.” Randolph said as a Sony a7 mirrorless camera rested in his lap. “I hardly knew how to take a picture. I’d never had a photo course.”
The popular Channel 11 “Soundstage” concert series provided Randolph with many of his evergreen moments. He shot Bob Dylan in 1975 for a three-hour tribute to record producer-activist John Hammond and included Benny Goodman, Milt Hinton, George Benson, Red Norvo, and Philly Jo Jones among others. In 1978 he shot Emmylou Harris with the Hot Band for Soundstage. When Ella Fotzgerald appeared with the Count Basie orchestra for a 1979 Soundstage taping, Randolph shot color and hired Paul Natkin to shoot black and white.
Randolph also worked the news side for the PBS Chicago affiliate. “Me and (WTTW correspondent) Paul O’Conner covered the last campaign of the first Mayor Daley,” he said. “I got fabulous stuff from that. Daley was a gas to be around, high squeaky voice.”
Randolph has never been married, although he admitted to “coming close” a couple of times. “So there isn’t anyone to look after and care for my work in the family after I’m gone,” he said.
Another artistic break materialized in 1984 when Randolph interviewed with Robert McCamant, art director and part owner of the Chicago Reader. “I didn’t really have a portfolio but I had a stack of prints and the Reader had done layouts from the Soundstage with stuff I shot,” Randolph explained. He wound up freelancing for the Reader for the next 20 years.
Paul Natkin said, “The Reader was the best place in town for two reasons:they paid a decent amount of money for a picture and they would use ten pictures in some articles, full page layouts. At the time I was working for the Illinois Entertainer and they were paying like $10 a shot. The Reader was like $35 a shot. I was going to be a millionaire!” Randolph added, “They did layouts to complement the photography. They thought about how the photography worked with the story. Not many people did that—McCamant did.
But Randolph’s most enduring and passionate project may be the documentation he did of Highway 61on assorted trips between 1975 and 1984. He drove about 200 miles a week in a black1963 Volvo 544. He shot more than 100 rolls of film. A book is in the works. “I went form Thunder Bay, Ontario to New Orleans,” he said with delight. “I was motivated by the Dylan song and the Mississippi River itself. And it (61) went from North to South when everybody else went East to West. I go fishing up north and I take 61 if I have the time.” Such is the spirit of Jon Randolph, always angling for the best catch.
