John Stewart, a very special friend!

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John Stewart a few years ago in Provence, ©Anne Clergue Galerie

I met John Stewart twenty five years ago at a summer luncheon in Saignon, in Lubéron. After five minutes, he started talking about his latest trip to Ladakh where he had met a common friend, Hugues de Montalembert. This coincidence was unusual enough to make us instant and long lasting friends ! Such was John’s curiosity  and interest for others! His impeccable French was tinted with a slight « International » accent which his studies at Janson de Sailly had not completely erased. His mother tongue was English. He died on March 10 th in Paris at 97 and still had photo projects for next summer in Provence.

Born John Stewart Ullmann in 1919 in London, he had the most amazing life, fighting in the British army during the war. After his landing in Singapore instead of Cairo, he survived a  1 276 day long emprisonment by the Japanese between 1942 and 1945. Enslaved into building the Japanese railroad from Bangkok to Rangoon,  and the bridge over river Kwaï from April to December 1943, he did not turn away from Asia of which he became a passionate lover. He survived the terrible treatments by the Japanese army through becoming an interpreter, learning the language with Missionaries while in prison.

He eventually became a technical adviser on the shooting of the film “The Bridge of River Kwai” in Sri Lanka in 1957, directed by David Lean which won seven Oscars.

One of his last projects, the photography of white porcelain by Astier de Villatte

He told the story of his ordeal after returning to Burma in 1979,  in « Kwai » a book published in English and French in 2006.

In a few days spent in 1977 with Muhamed Ali in Chicago, he shot fabulous pictures of the boxer

After surviving the war, John Stewart became a photographer, met Andre Verdet who introduced him to many artists in the South of France, including Picasso, Braque and Matisse. He also met Henri Cartier Bresson in St Paul de Vence and they became close friends. He worked in New York as a commercial photographer and  for Harper’s Bazaar and American Vogue. He eventually came back to France to settle in Paris and Gordes where he had a house and a studio.

A few years after we met, John had an exhibition of still lives all shot in abandoned houses of Lubéron. Anna Bonde showed and sold  his work in her beautiful gallery of Bonnieux. Bohemian chic was at its height in Lubéron in the late eighties. This is when I bought a first picture from him, « Artichokes in love » which represents two artichokes kissing, set on old abandoned newspapers.

The last one was a Morandi type picture of French china made in Paris by Astier de Villatte, the famous store of rue St Honoré, which had commissioned him a series of photographs. He liked this Japanese style of white china and enjoyed shooting them on perfectly ironed white tablecloths.  He was already over 90 then, but his creative energy was intact. 

Mohamed Ali in Chicago in 1977

At his funeral at cimetière du Père Lachaise, a very International group of close friends joined his son Nicolas who lives in California, and his companion Luciana Eng, in a musical celebration which mixed Satie and Bach, Salaverde and Granados. When a friend expressed his surprise that he had not been decorated by the British Empire for his role in the war, I instinctively thought, his decorations must be as secret as his services for the army…

A last farewell from his friends in March, “Bon Voyage”

The most amazing flower arrangement of yellow and orange poppys reminded us of his love for eastern beauty.  We were all given a card with one of his early still life pictures in black and white that said: John Stewart, 1919-2017, « the year you are born or the year you die don’t matter, what matters is the hyphen ». 

His sense of humor was present with us and we all understood that his elegant life was a well lived hyphen !

 

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6 Comments on “John Stewart, a very special friend!”

  1. Most interesting and very moving too, dearest Laure ! No wonder we love the hyphen…
    And always my weekly Tuesday morning pleasure…

  2. Merci, Laure,tu as retracé un bon portrait de John et de tant d’autres…le mardi matin
    sais tu où l’on peut voir ces photographies?
    Je t’embrasse
    Marina Jacquillat

  3. I was so glad to read this.
    John and I were close friends in London in the late 1980s, and then after I moved back to New York and he was here during Alex’s illness.
    He remains my model of a multi-layered friendship in the European way.
    I have a question: Does anyone know where he lived on East 73rd Street in Manhattan in the 1950s? I live right around the corner and am curious which carriage house was his.
    Or — does anyone know how to contact his wife, or Nicholas?
    Best rushes to all,
    Christopher Phillips

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