ARTIST BIOS
I enjoy writing bios for creatives because each person has their own point of view, and it’s fun to inhabit that space on their behalf.
Below, a few samples…
JULIA JOHNSON, PHOTOGRAPHER & DIRECTOR
Julia Johnson’s dazzling visual style can be traced to her youth in South Beach: vibrant, chic, and personality-drenched. But her technical mastery and immaculate art direction are all her own, earned over a career of producing eye-catching, award-winning work for clients like Apple TV+, Kohler, Adidas, Gatorade, Target, Paramount+, Amazon, Benefit Cosmetics, Audi, and Absolut.
With Julia, you notice compelling contradictions: She’s a free-spirited artist who thrives on collaboration; she’s an avid problem solver who likes to make things look easy; she’s high brow and low brow, upscale and all-access, as fabulous and unpretentious as they come. And super fun to work with.
Emerging brands come to her to help them shape their visual identity. Established brands seek her out to expand on their ideas. All of them come to her for complex shoots that they just don't trust with other creative partnerships. And her personal projects offer her imagination room to roam. Based in Pasadena, California, she’s also a mother and a gardener. Julia is always making something grow.
Photo © Julia Johnson.
BRAD TORCHIA, PHOTOGRAPHER & DIRECTOR
Brad Torchia’s work confirms a simple truth: There is power in beauty, and there is beauty in everything. When he composes an image, he is equally inspired by the meditative flow of surfing, the mystical light in Edward Hopper’s paintings, and the rapturous hues of a Matisse, riding the energy of a moment to photographic bliss as if it were a perfect wave. Lifestyle, travel, portrait, automotive—in Brad’s hands, these genres transcend category in favor of emotion, connection, and a cinematic alchemy of color and luminosity. You can see these qualities across his portfolio, whether it’s key art for Apple TV+ and portraits of celebrities like Phoebe Bridgers and Glen Powell to campaigns for brands such as Lululemon, SoHo House, Maker's Mark, Hilton, Amazon, and Apple.
Brad’s background is in marketing, but his heart is in nature. He’s a lifelong snowboarder who hails from Rochester, New York, spent memorable years in the Rocky Mountains, and now lives with his wife and young daughter in Los Angeles, where he channels the transcendent qualities of the sun and ocean. Surfing and fatherhood have brought him even closer to himself and to his art, infusing his visual storytelling with a startling clarity: Brad pares his stories back to their essence so that everything within the frame feels special, significant, while his daily explorations in painting and collage add dimension to the way he pictures the world around him. Ultimately, he hopes to reveal what’s right there in front of us: the joy of life.
Photo © Brad Torchia.
PETER QUINN, MOTION DESIGNER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Motion designer, VFX artist, and creative director Peter Quinn is many things: gleefully nonconformist, impishly innovative, ridiculously prolific, Irish, and LA-based. But most of all, he’s a master of benevolent mischief. Sometimes slapstick in nature and always disarmingly clever, his viral content (for Will Smith, Jared Leto, and James Corden, among others), ad campaigns (see: Camila Cabello for OLIPOP), and music videos (Weezer) embrace playfulness and absurdity in equal measure. In one mind-bending clip, Peter has Serena Williams whacking a mini Serena across the tennis court with her mighty racket. Working with little more than his iPhone and computer, he gets people to do crazy things, harms no one, and delights all who watch—including Snoop Dogg, one of his frequent collaborators.
Growing up in Ireland with a dad who taught art (and two brothers who also became motion designers), Peter would be pointed to a sketchbook if he professed boredom. You could say he’s been concepting his entire life. He went on to work at a design-focused creative agency in Belfast where typographical perfection was prized and, later, to become “the video guy” for Dollar Shave Club, where he produced witty ideas in high volume on demand, as if in boot camp for creators. Beneath his creative mayhem is a deep well of experience and strategy, and an endless desire to surprise even the most seen-it-all viewers. An enthusiastic speaker on the subject of creativity and technology, Peter has appeared at events hosted by Meta, among others. Stay tuned to see where he’ll pop up next.
Snoop Dogg gif © Peter Quinn.