John Eugene Panic (born Houston, Texas, 1954) studied photography and film during the 1970’s-80’s. He worked as a custom BW printer and floater in a commercial custom color lab around 1980-86. His altered SX-70 work was exhibited in 1986. An observational documentary he co-produced aired on the local PBS station around 1987.
John was ill between 1992-2006- during which time most of his early work was lost or destroyed. Between 2006-11 John wrote about his experience with mental illness and titled it “Lockdown.” In addition to his photography, John is currently polishing the first draft of “Lockdown.” Drafts of “Lockdown” can be found on this site.
John began teaching himself digital photography in 2012. In 2017, he began submitting his images for publication. Three of his images, with accompanying text, were featured on The Broken Light Collective’s website in 2017. Three more of his images were exhibited as part of The Houston Center for Photography’s 36th Annual Juried Membership Exhibition (7/20/2018-8/26/2081.) An interview and 20 images from “Anthology” posted on Fragmentary.org at http://fragmentary.org/john-eugene-panic/ on 11/21/2018.
The documentary film he co-produced (The Man with no Sign) was aired on SWAMP’s PBS show “The Territory” in the mid 1980’s.
John, and his ex-wife, live with his 91-year-old father and provide elder care for him. John’s mother died on April 2nd, 2020 of natural causes. John Eugene Panic is a pseudonym used to protect the privacy of his family. All characters, unless they are public figures, have been given pseudonyms to protect their privacy.