Our man in Rio
If you ask John Maier where he was born, he'll proudly state he was conceived on a ship from Santos, Brazil, to New Orleans. But the truth is that John was born in Dallas, Texas. After enduring Texas for three months, John persuaded his parents to move him and his brothers to Ubatuba on the coast of Brazil, where they lived their early years before moving on to Switzerland, Spain, Germany, and the US.
John studied "creative writing" at a very liberal arts college in Florida and spent two years on study programs in Colombia, England, Norway and Spain. After graduating and teaching English in Japan for two years (where he made more money than he is making now), John worked his way as a photographer and writer through Asia and South-East Asia. The highlight of the journey came in 1983 when he entered and won the "All India ski championship" in the Indian Himalayas.
John came to Rio de Janeiro for a one-week vacation in 1985. He has been there ever since. After working with Lonely Planet and then Time Magazine as a writer and photographer for six years, John went freelance and began shooting video. His work has appeared on BBC, Channel 4, HBO and Discovery, as well as in publications such as Time, The New York Times, National Geographic, The Guardian, Spiegel, Newsweek and Colors.
For True Vision, John filmed the Brazil portions of the documentaries "Slavery" (Peabody Award as an AP) and "Kids Behind Bars." He also worked on the Brazil portion of "Innocents Lost" and "Killer Cops." With a team of journalists and film-makers, he created No Lie Productions (www.nolieproductions.com), which he describes as "modern-day story tellers" who use video and other media to expose social injustices and document solutions.
Aside from social documentary, his favorite subject is the ocean, especially dolphins and whales. Although he has threatened to move to Hawaii on several occasions, he continues to live the good life in Rio, where he dwells in a little house in Ipanema just a few blocks from the beach. He starts each day by going for an hour-long surf and swim with his two dalmations, Genki and Heiwa, and his favorite partner-in-crime, Alcione.
(And if there are any possible clients reading this, unlike Bongo, the blonde one, John speaks German, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese. But he admits he lacks some of Bongo's more appealing aesthetic qualities.)
