Friday 9 April 2010

Jordan Small


Jordan Small
Michigan
flickr

















How is life in Michigan?

Wonderful, Michigan is totally underrated. I hate it sometimes, but it's a beautiful state. I love that it can be 70 degrees one day and snowing the next. It keeps things interesting when there isn't a pattern.


Do you take pictures continuously or would you describe it more like in high/low activity phases?

Both. I always have a camera on me, so I'm always shooting, but it might take me a couple of weeks to finish a roll or a couple of hours.


Please explain this brilliant one here.

Haha...I was just walking to class and I wanted to take a picture of the field, but then remembered I had a banana in my backpack, so 1+1=2.


Why do you refuse to use Photoshop?

I fell in love with photography for the process. I'm really proud to have a craft; I think that skills have become less common. I enjoyed rolling my own film, composing images, getting the exposure I wanted, developing the film, and finally printing. There is so much more to photography than the moment you click the shutter. When I first started taking pictures, I cared very little about whether the photos were "good", it was a matter of mastering the craft. When I think of an image I want to create (which is hardly ever the case), I find it much more interesting to do so without Photoshop. It's just not a tool in my bag of tricks. I prefer doing things in camera, messing with chemicals, cutting, scanning, etc... It's all much more hands on, and therefore a more direct expression.


You have quite a few photos of landscapes/nature. Is this something you are interested in photographing, or do you just find yourself being inspired by it?

I mean nature/earth/life is the ultimate piece of art, and all art is just an homage to it one way or another. I guess I'm just not that subtle about it. Also, I get really excited when I find a photographer who presents a landscape in a new way because I think it can be difficult to be creative with nature photography.


Related to this, if you think about it, what is your preference: parks, the woods or open fields?

They are all good, there's no such thing as a bad location. I guess I prefer woods because it's more challenging to find silence in all the clutter.


Which colour would you paint your first house?

Well I hope it will be a log cabin, so...


You know you like a person more than usual when ...

You can't explain why.


What do you consider more classy for writings: black or blue ink?

Black, traditional.


If you would be offered to exhibit your work along with a photographer of your choice, who would it be?

That's tough because so many photographers have inspired me, but I have no idea which ones my photos would work with. So, I might just take some liberties with this one and say I'd like to recreate Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky's images, because the technique fascinates me.


Do you consider art a necessity?

Yeah, I was actually talking about this with a friend not too long ago. We were trying to figure out the evolutionary benefits of art. What about the cave paintings helped prehistoric humans to survive? There's gotta be something there.


How do you like your coffee?

Black for sure.


Is there some period/issue in history that you are interested in?

I guess it's kind of ethnocentric of me, but I've been really into American history recently. The Founding Fathers deserve more credit. Teddy Roosevelt was pretty amazing too.


What could make you not publish a picture that you actually like?

When my girlfriend won't let me because she thinks she looks bad in it.



Beautiful work, be sure to visit his flickr!

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