Javon Longieliere, M.Photog.,M.Wed.Photog.,Cr.,CPP, may be one of 26 photographers selected by Professional Photographers of America to represent Team USA in the upcoming 2025 World Photographic Cup (WPC), but Georgians know him better as an active GPPA member and former GPPA president. His career spans two decades and includes numerous accolades and accomplishments, like the publication of his book “Destination Weddings: The Photographers Guide To Shooting In Exotic And Unexpected Locations.” He officially began his career in 2001 under the name Portraits by Javon in Valdosta, Georgia. He continued to work at Lifetouch during the tenuous first few years as a small business owner until he discovered his love for wedding photography.
By 2003, he was shooting weddings in international locations: the images from his first big city wedding in Paris, France, were published in The Knot magazine. One bride saw the images and booked him for her destination wedding at a castle in the Loire Valley. “Boom, I was now an international wedding photographer!,” Javon says about his eleven-year career capturing weddings all over the world. In 2012, he retired from international wedding photography, and by 2015, he retired from the wedding business altogether. “Weddings will always be my first love…I still shoot two or three a year,” he says. Since 2015, his photographic work is primarily in portraiture and his signature ‘The Santa Experience’: something that now fills four months of his year.
Javon joined GPPA in 2002 but did not become an active member until 2014 when a need for volunteers catapulted him into positions as an Area Director, a Board Member, and later, GPPA president. “Joining GPPA was one of the best business decisions I ever made and remains one of the reasons that I am still in business over twenty years after starting as a professional photographer,” he says. GPPA introduced him to mentors and friends who helped him develop his business skills and hone his craft. He's earned both the Georgia Fellowship and Georgia Service Degrees through GPPA image competition, service, and education.
Through PPA competitions and education he’s earned, in addition to his PPA degrees and certification, four Images of Excellence, two silver medals, and a bronze medal in the new IPC. This year he will add Master of Wedding Photography to his repertoire.
Now, this Master of Wedding Photography has qualified for the 2025 World Photographic Cup in the Wedding Reportage category. “I was in a little bit of a shock,” Javon remarks upon receiving the email from Rich Newell, PPAs Director of Credentialing. “I don’t use camera straps - I am always holding the camera in my hand”. The spontaneous image entered in WPC is a prime example of why and the reason Javon was able to capture this unexpected moment. The image, taken from his pure artistic instinct, is a humorous scene between the bride and some family members. Javon hopes to travel to Ecuador in March to be in person at the live awards presentation for the World Photographic Cup backed by his GPPA community of friends to celebrate this victory.
The image “If the Bra Fits, the Bride Must Commit”, was entered in GPPAs 2024 Image Competition and earned the prestigious Katie Jiminez Heart Award, which is voted on by GPPA members.