John R. pepper

John Randolph Pepper was raised in a prominent family of intellectuals and artists. Born in 1958, to Curtis Bill Pepper, the head of the Rome bureau for ‘Newsweek’ magazine, and the sculptor Beverly Pepper, he grew up in Rome, Italy, with his sister, poet Jorie Graham, Pulitzer Poetry for Poetry in 1996 and since 1999 Boylston Professor at Harvard University. In 1976 he graduated in History of Art at Princeton University, and, as a painter in his own right, was awarded the Whitney Painting Fellowship in 1975. He was then admitted as a ‘Directing Fellow’ to The American Film Institute, Los Angeles, CA, and started his career as an assistant director working with Joseph Losey, George Roy Hill, and Dan Curtis. As a producer, in 1992 he brought to fruition ‘The Plague’, from Albert Camus’ novel, directed by Luis Puenzo, starring William Hurt, Robert Duval, Raoul Julia, Sandrinne Bonnaire and Jean Marc Barr, and with music by Vangelis. Pepper’s work in New York theatre include: ‘Cubistique’ (Tom Cohen), ‘The Cruelties of Mrs. Schnayd’ (David Suesdhorf), ‘Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All To You’ (Christopher Durang). He was the youngest director at the Spoleto Festival (Charelston) when he presented ‘Inner Voices’ by Eduardo De Filippo. Also a committed theatre director, Pepper directed plays in Paris, France, in Europe and Russia. His productions include ‘Retraite de Moscow’ by William Nicholson at Theatre Montparnasse (Paris 2008); ‘Underneath the Lintel’ by Glen Berger, Lederman Theatre, (Stockholm, 2005); ‘Pour En Découdre’ by Marc-Michel Georges; ‘Danny et la Grande Bleu’ by John Patrick Shanley at Avignon Theatre Festival (2000) then Paris’ Theatre Déjazet with actor Léa Drucker nominated for a Molière Award (2001). He directed the film version, ‘Papillion de Nuit’, 2001, winner of the ‘Prix Mediavision’ (2002) at the Sarlat Film Festival. Pepper was the first foreign director to be invited to the Drama Theatre on Vasilievsky (aka Teatre Satir) in Saint Petersburg, Russia (2013). Pepper’s career in photography started with an apprenticeship to Ugo Mulas, and grew up over the years while directing theatre and film. In 2008 he realized the show ‘Rome: 1969 – An Hommage to Italian Neo-Realist Cinema’, which toured to several venues in USA and France. Three years later, 2011, his first book, Sans Papier, saw the light, with subsequent exhibits in Rome, Venice, Saint Petersburg, Paris, and Palermo.



‘Evaporations’, Pepper’s last work, is not merely a series of views, but rather a journey to the wastelands of solitude, fragility, and alienation. Silent, isolated figures stand au bord de la mer, facing distant horizons, cloudy skies, or dark skylines. A hint of discomfort go through these intense, lyrical, and uncanny pictures. The American flag feebly waves in a desert landscape, or on the wall of an abandoned hut. Great hopes have been betrayed.