Phocasso’s John Wilson White has been photographing Art for artists since 1983. His Career as a photographer of works of Art began when a friend at SFAI asked him to make some slides of his paintings for a critique session. Throughout his time at SFAI, fellow students increasingly asked him “to make some nice slides like those one you made for Bill”. Word of mouth spread, and soon he was also photographing work for Faculty artists and neighboring gallerists in the emerging SOMA art scene of the 1980’s

After Graduating from SFAI in 1987 with A BFA in Photography, John expanded his skill set by seeking work in the commmercial photography world as a production assistant while continuing to serve his growing client base in the arts. He provided production assitance for commercial photographers serving a diverse range of clients including Nina Ricci, Elizabeth Arden,Apple Computer, Intel, Klutz Press,J.Walter Thompson, Hewlett Packard, United Airlines, and many others.

As the demand for his services grew, In 1989 he opened his first south of market studio at 99 Harriet. He began then in earnest to apply the production expertise he gained in the commercial world towards serving the documentation needs for artists,gallerists, and organizations. In particular John wanted to serve those artists whose work posed special challenges to photographic documentation.

In 1998 John began shooting Digitally, later that year he converted his first gallery client to digital photography, Susan Cummins Gallery in Mill Valley.

In the year 2000 Phocasso was founded to serve Artists, Gallerists, Arts Organizations, and Visual Resource Professionals in Publishing and intellectual property management. In 2002 we opened our 49 Geary Street location and moved right into the middle of it all. In May 2007 we moved to 657 Mission street to join the gallery scene emerging there.