This week’s Member Moment features work by Film Club member Jake Jackson, whose photography is focused on documenting changes in city life, revealing irony and the absurd, and capturing moments with friends. Scroll down to see his pictures and to read the interview!
PL: What got you interested in photography?
JJ: I was interested in photography from an early age, mostly trying and failing with disposable cameras and point & shoots. I read through an old photography theory book by Kodak that my parents had at home but didn't have a decent camera of my own until my grandparents gave me a digital Canon Powershot for my high school graduation. I spent my undergraduate years wandering NYC and taking whatever pictures I could. Very few of these digital photos still exist today due to crashed computers, a divorce, and other life events.
Eventually, when smartphones became better than the Powershot, I caved into just using a phone for pictures, documenting my everyday life and weird things in the street on social media. Taking pictures was fun, but because it was through a phone I did not think of anything that I was doing as real art or anything other than showing others what I've seen with some sarcastic comment.
At the beginning of 2023, I was suffering from burnout as an adjunct and took a short break from teaching philosophy. However, I wanted myself to develop new ways of seeing and interpreting the world, so I bought an SLR 35mm film camera with the intention of having a more tangible process of retaining images than just relying on computers and cloud storage. I've been shooting film regularly ever since, playing around with different styles and subjects. I love to show people what I see in the world for what it is in photography and what it could be through double-exposures.
PL: What type of camera do you shoot with?
JJ: I have a Canon Eos Elan II-E, a Canon Eos Rebel Xs, and a Nikon N2000. A good friend of mine has lent me their Nikon El2 from the 70s, and I am never returning it to them. I also have an old digital Canon Powershot that I still use on occasion.
PL: When taking pictures, what are some objects or elements or feelings within a scene that inspire you to take a photo?
AL: I am looking for irony and beauty. The world does not make sense; it never has, but it's noticeably making less sense now and as a philosophically-trained and self-taught photographer, my aim is taking pictures that reveal the absurd, the cycle of creation, maintenance, and destruction, and other tensions in everyday city life. I focus on the layers of architecture in Philadelphia and wherever else I am that show disparities between the past that was (and often being demolished), ugly new developments of a bland future to come, and the tension of the present city living in-between. I am always searching for signs, especially ghost signs that reveal what once was or passive aggressive notes between irate neighbors. I experiment a lot with in-camera multiple exposures to combine two or more elements, often a juxtaposition of nature and human-intervention. I like to capture images that contain a lot of little odd details that reward a closer inspection.
PL: Of the pictures you submitted, can you share an interesting story about one?
JJ: A large inspiration for why I took up film photography in 2023 is that at the time I lived in Fishtown near the now-former site of St. Laurentius Church. The building was the first Polish Catholic Church in Philadelphia built in 1882, and it had magnificent twin spire steeples. When I first moved to Philadelphia over a decade ago, I remember seeing it, covered in scaffolding and blocking off the street, yet still standing out in the skyline. After years of development neglect, the church was slated for demolition, and was taken apart piece-by-piece over the course of several months. Slowly watching a historical landmark be unbuilt inspired me to buy a camera and start documenting changes in the neighborhood, decay, and the ugliness of contemporary architecture. I've moved since, but so far as I know, the lot where St Laurentius stood still remains empty nearly two years later.
PL: What do you enjoy most about digital/film photography and what is challenging about it?
JJ: What drew me to taking up film photography is because it is both unforgiving but also occasionally and beautifully rewarding when it fails. I believe in a certain amount of embracing failure and like to keep a certain imperfect roughness in pictures. There's so much that can go wrong in a shot between focus, aperture, speed, light leaks, etc. but when things go a little off, it reveals that this is a process with a finicky tool that can be wielded both with precision or like a blunt cudgel. I love film photography because it is an artform that often reveals its own process to the viewer both intentionally and in defect. I prefer using older, used cameras because they present their materiality more than digital pictures and stand out in an age where we are increasingly being fed reductive and soulless AI-generated "art". The limitations of the number of exposures have taught me to be more intentional and to accept whatever comes out through the process rather than aiming for perfection.
PL: How would you like to grow this collection of photographs?
JJ: I want to take more portraits. I have taken many candid party pictures of my partner and friends, but I want more practice with the human form and directing people how to pose and make faces beyond just the luck of capturing moments on the spot. I also want to experiment with more black and white film and lowlight and long-exposure photography now after finally buying a tripod.
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