Jonathan Waiter Interview

Jonathan Waiter. Going through his portfolio just left me stunned. I think I audibly gasped a couple of times. It surprises me that I haven’t seen more of his work. I suppose it could be described as awkward, but that wouldn’t really be putting it in its place. We seem to feel the need to categorize everything to give people a vague idea about how they should feel about things. I am just at a loss for words at putting the work of Jonathan Waiter into a shoddy category. Filing it away like it isn’t awe-inspiring or driven. Jonathan Waiter hands out inspiration. For those eager for more, let’s have a chat.

Trey Taylor: Can you please fill this out?
Name: Jonathan Waiter
Age: 29
Occupation: Photographer
Currently Resides: The Netherlands
Favourite Song: Just one ? Impossible…

Trey Taylor: Can you debrief us [a short version] on your life up to this moment in time?
Jonathan Waiter: I was born in Los Angeles and raised by wolves in a Californian desert. I took an early interest in art and science. I would draw dinosaurs and build spaceships with logos. Imagination and science go really well together right? Eventually it made more sense to follow art more passionately, and I did. I found a love for making electronic music, I painted, and I studied film and 3d animation. I was looking for myself. It wasn’t until I picked up a camera until it really felt right. I was also very passionate about beauty and the psychological mechanics of people. With photography I could explore this. I started by photographing children. It was photographing children where I learned how to manipulate a viewer. This discovery led me to an interest in fashion.

TT: People might call your work moody. There I go categorizing again. Would you agree or would you say it defies all boundaries?
JW: For the moment, I can be happy with a term like moody. I’m realizing my ability to exploit and distort through the use of a camera. I’m performing experiments, learning how to better make one believe in the significance of my imaginings. How people perceive my work is entirely subjective, but it’s important to me that the role and mood of the subject is somehow tangible. I think if you’re calling it moody, I will agree because I’m aiming for that and I bring that sensibility to the image.

TT: What got you interested in fashion photography? And why such skinny girls?
JW: I think my interest in fashion was a natural progression. I was shooting children, not really sure where it was taking me. My pictures were at times successful at conveying an emotional connection between myself and the subject. Looking back I think they were romantic in a way. I was shooting portraits of myself through them. Romantically. After a while, I realized I was exploiting them in a way, by taking the frames out of context and using my knowledge of body language to communicate. I’m not ashamed of this exploitation because the images were really beautiful and my subjects loved making them with me. I had to move on because I couldn’t see the full potential of what I was discovering. And so finally I discovered fashion. My main interests lied in the psychological mechanics of the viewer and subjective reality. Fashion was/is the perfect vehicle for my explorations.

As for skinny girls, I’m also enormously interested in subverting my own idealized fantasy objects of beauty. I love the way young skinny girls look. I’m inspired by them. The characters I dream up are lost girls. They’re bags of sticks. Aliens. Monsters. Golems. Skinny creatures. Angels. Innocent and precious things. Dare I say I love the face of a skinny girl.

TT: Do you have a certain feeling about human expression? I mean, there is obviously a lot of energy behind your photos. They evoke a certain feeling. What do you tell the model to create such dramatic photos?
JW:  When you see something, your mind must interpret what you see. And how you interpret that ‘thing’ is your own creation. The subjective experience. This is what I’m capitalizing on. My directorial process is very collaborative with the model. I’m always offering inspirational suggestions while allowing the model room for her own creative process. The real magic is in that exploitative process I spoke of earlier. I don’t always tell the model the purpose of a certain suggestion, and many times the suggestion is silly or awkward and requires a higher level trust. It’s in the decisive moment and editing where I take the frames out of context. I’m reading the body language and atmosphere of a particular captured moment and using that to communicate whatever it is I feel the photo should express.

TT: Did you find that success landed at your feet? And how would you define success?
JW: Success is landing at my feet all the time. At least small successes. Success is the completion of anything intended and I’m learning and growing all the time. Success :)

TT: What do you want, more than anything? Do you hope your work makes or changes the way people think?
JW:  That’s an interesting question. Not one that I have really thought about. I guess at the moment I don’t feel any obligation to be socially responsible. I’m not that serious. I just want to have fun doing what I do, but there is something maybe more unconscious. Part of my process is to react against the things I don’t like and pursue the  things I do like. I guess in a way I am hoping to inspire change with those reactions.

TT: What would you tell somebody who is trying to make it as a fashion photographer?
JW: I don’t know if I’m one to say as I’ve not made it yet, but I think the most important thing is to have a point of view. Look inside of yourself and learn to express what is you. I think if you have something interesting to say the path will start to lay itself. And become business savvy (I think).

TT: Can you tell me how you feel about mystery?
JW: Mystery arouses curiosity and imagination. The role of curiosity and imagination is central to the way I think and learn. Those dinosaurs I used to draw were a result of my curiosity. [laughs] The dinosaurs were really fucking mysterious. At times I want my viewers to be curious about the characters I design much in the same way I was curious about the dinosaurs. What were the dinosaurs ? Who is this girl ? Mystery becomes an important element. I try to use it in very subtle ways. With an expression or body language or lighting.

TT: What do you know?
JW: There is no God. g