John D.C. Masters was born in Europe to American parents in the mid-1960s.  His first camera was a Kodak Instamatic in 1972. In 1990 he purchased his first film SLR, a Canon AE-1.

He develops all of his b/w film and prints his own images in his darkroom.  His color digital work is processed very sparingly through RAW and PhotoShop CS4.

He lives in upstate New York on an old farm. He uses a Voigtlander R4M, Canon QL17 GIII, Canon 50D, Rolleicord 120, Canon Digital Rebel XT,  and Mamiya c330.  He still occasionally uses a Canon AE-1.  He prefers primary lenses-28, 35 and 50mm.  Like Jean Cocteau, he believes that “The camera is but the third eye of the person using it."