Hi, I’m Robert Hudovernik, author of “Jazz Age Beauties – The Lost Collection of Ziegfeld Photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston.”
I first came across ACJ’s photographs on Ebay. Each consecutive image that I saw of his made me more excited about his work. I started searching for as much information as I could find on who this “artist with a camera” was but found very little. The more frustrated I became with the dead ends I kept running into, the more involved my research got. After a few years I’d put together a sort of jigsaw puzzle of the life and work of Alfred Cheney Johnston.
I didn’t set out to write a book on Johnston but as more years passed it became a natural conclusion that I would compile my collected research into a book. Making that decision was easy enough, finding a publisher was just the opposite.
Eventually I was able to secure the interest of an enthusiastic editor from one of the major New York City publishers of fine art books. The editor’s expertise was in compiling fine art photography books. After 18 long months of hanging on to his promises that he could and would convince the editorial staff of his publishing house to give my Alfred Cheney Johnston book project an thumbs up, he failed.TWICE!
All those months of putting my eggs solely in his basket of promises came to nothing. I admit discouragement set in and for two months I did nothing. But then I managed to renew my belief in this project. So I sucked it up and started doing research on NYC agents. I compiled a list of about a dozen, put together a proposal and included samples of ACJ’s images and sent out 12 packets.
A few days later I got an early morning call from what sounded like a crazy a man calling from some subway tunnel in New York City. He talked so fast I could hardly keep up with him. He said something about just leaving Rizzoli International where he threw the Alfred Cheney Johnston images on the desk of the Acquistion Editor and her instantly saying, “I want this project!”
And that’s how I found an agent who got me a book contract for what would become “Jazz Age Beauties”.
I learned a lot from the experience of working with a major book publisher, mainly that just like it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to build a book. And that means a lot of compromising–on both sides.
Getting “Jazz Age Beauties” published along with the ever developing capabilities of internet have led me now to becoming a “citizen publisher”.
The “Alfred Cheney Johnston” Inbox Magazine is a platform I’ve opted to use to communicate more directly with readers, the ongoing news and facts I’m continually finding out about Alfred Cheney Johnston. I have a wealth of information to share with you. I hope you’ll enjoy reading it as much as I’ve always enjoyed writing about it.
Just a snap shot of my background – I received a BFA from Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, WI. Today it is known as MIAD. I went on to get a Master of Fine Art degree in Drawing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After graduating I taught at a university. My first love has always been photography which is why from the first Alfred Cheney Johnston image I saw I was hooked on his work. And I continue to be over a decade later.
