An Interview with Jennifer Jean

Raised in Fargo, North Dakota and having lived in Canada and Scotland photographer Jennifer Jean only took up creative photography in the last ten years. Now living in rural Texas, she captures the quiet corners of the small towns that surround her. With exquisite framing and composition, each is a still story that often lingers in the mind’s eye long after they have been first viewed.

• Hi Jennifer, tell me a little about you and how you discovered your love of photography?

I have always liked the idea of using a camera, but I didn’t buy my first DSLR until after I had children. Back then when the children were young, I would enjoy sharing photos of them growing up and the odd things that went on in our backyard. As well as photographing my children I spent a lot of time doing macro photography focusing on insects and spiders.

Eventually, my husband found some hunting land just outside the city limits of Graham, Texas. What we thought would be a great place to visit on the weekends ended up being the place we called home for several years while our children were growing up.

I didn’t start understanding art photography or new topographic subjects until I joined my first Facebook photography group, which was actually a minimalist one. In the group, they spoke about different types of photography and artists, and this helped me to stretch my understanding of subjects. For example, the Facebook group, The New Topographic Movement was a great place to learn, be inspired and share some of my early photos of these types. I guess I’m a quick learner and I started to notice subjects that others were talking about and because I was living in a very small rural town of fewer than 9,000 people I began to see that I was among the very things that people might travel from far away places to find and document.

• Your work has a strong sense of place, it’s as if you work in areas well known to you, can you tell me more about your locations and how you choose them?

Although I have lived in various states and a few countries during my life, we have lived in north central Texas for the last ten years. Texas is a very big state and we’re in the Tex-Oma area - which means we’re almost in Oklahoma. There are several smaller towns nearby and as you drive to these locations you start to notice different things that are unique to that town but also very Texas small-town.

One town I was keen to visit when I realized it was so close was Archer City. I had read the book, ‘Last Picture Show’ written by Larry McMurtry and fell in love with these characters in this rural town which was dying – It made for such a poignant story. It was so memorable, I wanted to see the movie. Directed by Peter Bogdanovich and stars a very young Cybil Shepherd and Jeff Bridges. The film brought the whole thing alive on the big screen. Shot in black and white to maintain a simplicity that in colour wouldn’t have been the same. I’m sure that this was when I fell in love with this idea of the poetry of small towns. The past, the isolation, and the quiet which allowed things to be more noticed by one’s eye or imagination. I think photographs can do this, tell a small bit of a story. I recognize this often when watching shows, movies and documentaries, how things are framed.

• In your photography, human involvement is ever-present but mostly only implied, can you tell me a bit about how you see this relationship in your photography?

I think, so far much of my time behind my camera has always been meditative and as I’m not as that experienced, I found doing this on my own or during the quietest times and in locations I know is the easiest for me. People can be distracting. I’m friendly and once I start to talk, I lose my ability to focus and feel that magic of the flow of seeing. I do think it would be nice to evolve in time and include some people in the photos. It likely will come naturally and I’ve experimented a little from time to time. I shoot a lot of everything, but I’m reluctant to share things as I’m still at the beginning or maybe a little farther along, but I have so much to learn. I generally know when I share something, it’s about as good as I’m going to get with a subject. However not always a favourite photo. Basically, shooting in rural towns on a Sunday, it’s like going to ‘church’ - everyone is either home or at church and I love the freedom to capture or roam with no interruption. I enjoy quiet and simplicity in my work and the odd character is wonderful, it’s very unplanned if you see one in my frame.

• You appear to have a fascination with the calm of the night. So much of your work is photographed after sunset, can you tell me why you chose to work during these hours and what is like for you to be out with your camera and tripod at night?

Until you get out and shoot at night, you’ll never understand the thrill or at least for me, it’s something I cannot explain unless you’ve tried it. From the start, all my work was just trial and error but night was a game changer. I had to dust off my tripod and as a woman and you can’t just wander around at night without being aware of my surroundings. Most places I take photos are local, within a two-hour radius from where I live. Generally, I’ve been to each location in daylight before I’ve taken night photos, but not always. I also tend to revisit places seasonally as you never know when you’ll get something different or even better. I do find, almost always, my first shot framed is often the strongest and as a digital user, of course, I take more, but I often laugh to myself as it amuses me that I still second guess myself.

• Having said that, you seem quite happy shooting in bright daylight… really bright, with its vibrant colour and contrast. What makes you choose light vs. dark in any potential scene?

I live in Texas and sometimes it depends on the time of year, so it could be early light, it’s just cooler out and I had a notion to go somewhere as blue skies and sun are forecast. It is rarely planned. Again, with night-time work, it’s great as it’s not in the sun as it can be really exhausting driving around to different towns and walking in the heat, so it’s a mixture of elements that dictate the light, time of day and so on, but clearly, light is so important to one’s photos. You quickly learn when you’re in a location and the light is good, remember this or when it’s bad, make a note to return and figure out when it might be better if you revisit. I cannot determine if something is going to work during the day or night until I’m there and I see it. Honestly, it’s a crap shoot. I often think if you drive around enough with your camera and you have a bit of luck and talent, you might get something each time you’re out and on the odd time, things align and something magical might happen and the addiction continues.

• Can you tell me about how you approach a shot, what attracts you to a place and how you work scene?

I will often be in my car and stop if I see something, a building, a sign, the light, a great shadow. At night and in places where I feel safer, I’ll walk the area with my tripod. Once, I was in Mineral Wells, Texas where I took a back road and stopped to see two semi-trucks parked by a puddle and when I turned around I saw an old automobile undercover by a metal building. I don’t see a lot of old automobiles in situations like this so it was special, but it was also placed right next to a modern vehicle which limited the way I framed it.

Often because I’m not sure how I’d shoot a scene I tend to frame one of the whole scene to give me a reference if I ever want to return. I then tend to get into it, and I get excited and it’s almost like I don’t even remember what happens after, but that evening walking away I knew, this was one of those times when stars aligned for me.

• I notice that both colour and black & white play roles in your work, how do you see the relationship between these two presentations and your photography?

I love colour. I love simplicity. I love calm and minimal scenes. I use a Fuji X-Pro3 and really like how It handles colour and the clean images it renders. I am less experienced with black & white and I only tend to edit images if I feel they work best that way. I think black & white can really enhance certain things about an image and make it stand out. Sometimes I find colour can distract or overwhelm an image. I’m all about removing things in my frame which I don’t really want in them, if that makes sense? For me, less will always say more to my mind.

• What really attracts me to your images is the dreamy loneliness together with their clean and meticulous compositions. Do you see anything in what I feel? What are you looking for when you frame a scene?

I shoot alone, I love the quiet, the calm, the still times. When I am out with my camera I find it’s a bit like my husband who goes out hunting on our land in that I walk the same areas, enjoy seeing tracks and look for clues, going only at the best times for success. There is something special about being out with one’s camera and I like total freedom as much as one can have. I don’t want to be on a time restriction, and I don’t want to listen to someone talk, it’s very self-involved and completely wonderful as you leave everything behind, emotions and you just let this energy flow that is within you.

• I love your use of signs, signage and letter forms in your photography, is this a conscious thing, do they attract you or are they simply background?

I love signage, I assume it’s created to attract most people’s eyes and one of the gifts of living in rural communities is the hand-painted and old signs. But I’d assume also in urban areas, it would be the same. I have wandered a bit in Fort Worth, Texas with my camera as it’s a location I use to live and know well enough. I love the older part of the city with its history and grit.

• So, if you had an all-expenses paid week to shoot anywhere in the world where would you go and why?

Gosh, we talked a little about this in our face-to-face conversation, I can’t say one particular place. I used to say, I would love to spend a significant time up north where I grew up. But sometimes the things you think would be great, might not be what you were expecting.

I also love the idea of going back to this little area called Hackett’s Cove outside Halifax, Canada to document the area. I’m sure it’s been done before, but not by me. I also would love to go back to Scotland and look at Glasgow through my camera, it was where I had my son in 2000 and lived in the city and could walk to the Kelvingrove Museum and take the ‘clockwork orange’ underground. I suppose you can see where I’m going, I have this affinity for past places that will always live in my mind and would love to see them in a photograph. I’m sure there are other places, Iceland would be high on my list. Also, as I was adopted from South Korea as an infant the idea of going there and documenting my journey to my homeland could be very moving.

• Who and what inspires and influences your photography?

One photographer who comes to mind is Henry Wessel - I love his work. But often it’s films, television shows and documentaries - these things are likely how I learned to compose, frame or shoot things. I’m sure my brain without even trying just picks up things and I don’t think about things too hard; I just go out and shoot. Which if you know me is amazing because I often overthink things, but when I have my camera, it all flips and I don’t, there is this calm and I’m no longer thinking about myself or my world but I’m seeing the world.

• What role does post-processing play in your work?

Very little. I use Lightroom. I’m not good at editing, I’d prefer to edit as little as possible but obviously, I do use it if it’s necessary. I find it can be fun to play with tones or colours - I try to show a variety in my work, soft, bright, light, you’ll likely never see anything too vibrant but it can be fun and creative to work on images. I am reluctant to do much and I like the cameras and lenses I use for the reason I think they do a good job without me having to help out much, but I get it, we can’t all get everything just so and it’s fabulous to tweak things.

• Do you have any projects and plans for your photography in 2022/23?

I am going on a road trip at the end of October to my hometown of Fargo, North Dakota and after that on to Minneapolis, Minnesota to see my childhood best friend. It has been over ten years since I’ve been in these areas and never with my camera. So this is the start of my photographic adventure outside of rural Texas, stay tuned.

You can see more of Jennifer’s photography on her Instagram page