John Engstead (1908-1983) was born in Los Angeles. He became a film and stage enthusiast in his youth, and as a student at Los Angeles High School he interviewed celebrities for the school newspaper. In August 1926, at age 17, he secured a position as an office boy in Paramount Studio’s publicity department. While still working as an office boy, he began submitting feature stories to the department and soon became a full-fledged publicity writer. In 1927 he coordinated his first still-photo shoot, for Clara Bow. This soon led to a new position as art supervisor, where he managed and coordinated photographers shooting portrait, scene, and off-camera stills. In 1933 he undertook his first session as a still photographer with Cary Grant during a studio strike, but soon returned to his role as manager/coordinator of photo shoots at Paramount, a position he maintained until he left the studio in 1941.

In 1941 Engstead started his own business as an independent still photographer and continued in that vein until 1982, during which time he took formal portraits, fashion photos, and more relaxed candid-type shots of hundreds of motion picture, television, stage, and literary notables. Outside his photo studio, he occasionally accepted assignments from the studios to create "special photography" for specific films, as well as sessions for the television networks and several stage productions. He also produced innumerable photographs for such magazines as "Ladies Home Journal," "Life," "Look," "Collier's," "Esquire," "McCall's," "House Beautiful," "Mademoiselle," "Vogue," and "Harper's Bazaar."