John Randolph Pepper


John R. Pepper is a photographer and theatre director.

Biography

Pepper was born in Rome, Italy in 1958 to Curtis Bill Pepper, a war correspondent and the head of the Rome bureau for Newsweek magazine, and the sculptor Beverly Pepper. He has one sister, poet Jorie Graham. He was raised in Rome, Italy. He studied History of Art at Princeton University where he was also one of the original painting members of the '185 Nassau Street Painting Program' and was awarded the Whitney Painting Fellowship in 1975. In 1981 Pepper was admitted as a 'Directing Fellow' to The American Film Institute, Los Angeles. Pepper has married twice and has two sons from his first marriage.

Photography

Pepper began his career as an apprentice to Ugo Mulas who gave him his first formal training in the art of street photography.
Pepper pursued his work in photography for three decades while simultaneously directing in the theatre and in film. His show 'Rome: 1969 – An Hommage to Italian Neo-Realist Cinema' lead him back to his native Italy where Lanterna Magica Edizioni published the book Sans Papier with subsequent exhibitions in Rome, Venice, Saint Petersburg, Paris, Palermo.
In 2012 the Manège Museum in Saint Petersburg, showed Pepper's new work which the Istituto Superiore Per la Storia della Fotografia published as a new book of photographs in 2014 called 'Evaporations' that previews at the Officina delle Zattere in Venice.
In 2015, the Italian Institute of Culture and the Russia Federation Ministry of Culture sponsored a traveling exhibition that opened at the Rosphoto Photography Museum.
In March 2015 Pepper had a retrospective exhibit at the Showcase Gallery in Dubai.
The Italian Institute of Culture and The United States Mission in Russia sponsored a travelling exhibition of Evaporations throughout Siberia, Russia at Fondazione Terzo Pilastro e Meditteraneo's, 'Museo Palazzo Cipolla'. The monumental exhibit consisted of 52 works ranging from 120 x160cm to 3m x 5m.
In November 2017, Pepper inaugurated Inhabited Deserts at La Galerie du Palace in Paris. This show is the first stop of a traveling exhibition of new photographs where Pepper questions whether man's presence has inexorably altered the landscape or whether the land is in essence still close to what it was before mankind arrived. In September 2018 Inhabited Deserts was presented at the Aaran Gallery in Teheran; then in November a selection of Inhabited Deserts was shown at Paris Photo 2019 with the Sophie Scheidecker Gallery before Pepper took the show to Tel Aviv at the 6th edition of the International festival Photo Is:Rael. From December 12, 2018 to February 15 Inhabited Deserts was presented at The Empty Quarter Gallery in Dubai, U.A.E. with curatorial text by Kirill Petrin. Subsequently the show opened on March 19, 2019 in Saint Petersburg, Russia, at the Art of Foto Gallery and shortly thereafter, on April 18, it returned to Tel Aviv at the NOX Contemporary Gallery. In 2020 Inhabited Deserts will be seen in the United States and Italy. In 2019, Pepper opened ‘Rome 1969, An Homage to Italian Neo-Realism’ at the RAW Streetphoto Gallery in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Exhibitions

Pepper began in film, working as assistant director for many directors including Joseph Losey, George Roy Hill and Dan Curtis.
As a producer Pepper developed and brought to fruition the motion picture 'The Plague' directed by Luis Puenzo with William Hurt, Robert Duval, Raoul Julia, Sandrinne Bonnaire and Jean-Marc Barr. Music by Vangelis. He directed the film version, 'Papillion de Nuit' at the Sarlat Film Festival.

Filmography

Theatre

Pepper's work in New York theatre include: 'Cubistique', 'The Cruelties of Mrs. Schnayd', 'Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All To You' ; he was the youngest director at the Spoleto Festival when he presented 'Inner Voices' by Eduardo De Filippo.
Pepper directed plays in Paris, France, in Europe and Russia. His productions include 'Retraite de Moscow' by William Nicholson at Theatre Montparnasse ; 'Underneath the Lintel' by Glen Berger, Lederman Theatre, Stockholm, Sweden ; 'Pour En Découdre' by Marc-Michel Georges; 'Danny et la Grande Bleu' by John Patrick Shanley at Avignon Theatre Festival then Paris' Theatre Déjazet with actor Léa Drucker nominated for a Molière Award.
Pepper was the first foreign director to be invited to the Drama Theatre on Vasilievsky in Saint Petersburg, Russia. His Russian language, production of My Dear Mathilde by Israel Horovitz is now permanently in the repertoire. In 2016 Pepper opened a new production of Danny and the Deep Blue Sea in Italy at Teatro Garibaldi in Palermo with Leonardo Sbragia e Laura Anzani then in Milan before going to Naples, Salerno, Rome and touring Italy. Also in 2016 he opened a production of Sam Shepard's True West at Saint Petersburg Russian State Institute of Performing Arts.
In 2018 Pepper directed the Italian premiere of John Patrick Shanley's Four Dogs and a Bone with an adaptation by Enrico Vanzina. It debuted at the Teatro Vittorio Alfieri in Naso, Sicily and then moved to a successful run in Rome at the OFF/OFF Theatre.

Theatrical performances