L' oeil ailleurs

INTRODUCING JORDAN SMALL
I live in Michigan, but I’m moving to South Carolina in a couple weeks. Like a lot of people, I always kind of hated my hometown, but recently I’ve come to really appreciate it. I love the weather, the trees, the seasons. It’s nice here, but I’ve lived in the same place my whole life, so I’m excited to be somewhere new. I’ve been 20 years old for almost a year which means my birthday is coming up soon. I think sometime in middle school I had my mom buy me some black and white disposable cameras and that was the first time I really sought out photography. Then in high school my grandpa gave me a Minolta x-370 that was used by a professional nature photographer and I that’s when I started to shoot regularly. I’ve always been really drawn to all forms of art, and photography was the most accessible for me. It’s not that I needed to express myself or say something specific, but I enjoyed the process of working with film. It’s very ritualistic to me and also very therapeutic. Aside from my own self satisfaction, I guess there are a lot of ideas that I think are interesting to explore with photography, but I try not to think about them. The more I think, the worse I shoot. The most I can say is that I gravitate towards impressions I get, and regardless of where they come from, I try to document them. Photography makes my mind a more interesting place to live. I am constantly thinking in terms of photography and relate everything back to it. I really just hope to continue exploring some more of the things I am interested in through photography. Also, I haven’t been in the darkroom for like two years and I miss it quite a bit. I’ve only been shooting and haven’t been printing so I’d like to do a lot more with printing. I’d love to do some color processing someday, maybe work on some zines. Who knows… For a while I’ve been using disposable cameras and my Yashica t5 pretty exclusively and I’ve been really happy with the results. When I notice a pattern, I try to change it, so I think I might try going back to an SLR or TLR. It’s been a while since I’ve used one so I’d be interested in seeing how my shooting process may have changed. This is a photo I took this spring in South Carolina. The land on the left side of the road is my Grandpa’s property and the land on the right is not. We had been burning a lot of his land and then the wind changed so we sat by the road to watch it and make sure the flame didn’t jump. Eventually the wind changed again, but for awhile we just sat there watching the fire burn and the smoke billow up. It was really amazing. A lot of the cars on the road would turn around, but some just went through it. It was incredibly surreal watching cars go in and out of the smoke. I just got some work from Hasisi Park, Mark Peckmezian, and Lukasz Wierzbowski. They create images I wish I had. I love how they see, I’m immediately drawn to their work, and it’s just beautiful. I think the fact that I have physical copies of their work makes it easier for me to fall in love with their photographs. Also, Sylvain-Emmanuel Prieur has some amazing work.

I live in Michigan, but I’m moving to South Carolina in a couple weeks. Like a lot of people, I always kind of hated my hometown, but recently I’ve come to really appreciate it. I love the weather, the trees, the seasons. It’s nice here, but I’ve lived in the same place my whole life, so I’m excited to be somewhere new. I’ve been 20 years old for almost a year which means my birthday is coming up soon. I think sometime in middle school I had my mom buy me some black and white disposable cameras and that was the first time I really sought out photography. Then in high school my grandpa gave me a Minolta x-370 that was used by a professional nature photographer and I that’s when I started to shoot regularly. I’ve always been really drawn to all forms of art, and photography was the most accessible for me. It’s not that I needed to express myself or say something specific, but I enjoyed the process of working with film. It’s very ritualistic to me and also very therapeutic. Aside from my own self satisfaction, I guess there are a lot of ideas that I think are interesting to explore with photography, but I try not to think about them. The more I think, the worse I shoot. The most I can say is that I gravitate towards impressions I get, and regardless of where they come from, I try to document them. Photography makes my mind a more interesting place to live. I am constantly thinking in terms of photography and relate everything back to it. I really just hope to continue exploring some more of the things I am interested in through photography. Also, I haven’t been in the darkroom for like two years and I miss it quite a bit. I’ve only been shooting and haven’t been printing so I’d like to do a lot more with printing. I’d love to do some color processing someday, maybe work on some zines. Who knows… For a while I’ve been using disposable cameras and my Yashica t5 pretty exclusively and I’ve been really happy with the results. When I notice a pattern, I try to change it, so I think I might try going back to an SLR or TLR. It’s been a while since I’ve used one so I’d be interested in seeing how my shooting process may have changed. This is a photo I took this spring in South Carolina. The land on the left side of the road is my Grandpa’s property and the land on the right is not. We had been burning a lot of his land and then the wind changed so we sat by the road to watch it and make sure the flame didn’t jump. Eventually the wind changed again, but for awhile we just sat there watching the fire burn and the smoke billow up. It was really amazing. A lot of the cars on the road would turn around, but some just went through it. It was incredibly surreal watching cars go in and out of the smoke. I just got some work from Hasisi Park, Mark Peckmezian, and Lukasz Wierzbowski. They create images I wish I had. I love how they see, I’m immediately drawn to their work, and it’s just beautiful. I think the fact that I have physical copies of their work makes it easier for me to fall in love with their photographs. Also, Sylvain-Emmanuel Prieur has some amazing work.

4:33 pm • 15 August 2010 • 1 note