Meet Kyle Jones. Seattle-based Kyle, a programmer by day and photographer by night (or possibly the other way around), is the second in our new series of featured photographers from the BP community. Kyle describes himself “primarily a street photographer”. As he puts it, “I take pictures of people and scenes in public places.” Kyle shares some of his story and a few of his images with us.
BP: Tell us a little about yourself.
I’m a forty-something computer programmer, happily married and living in Seattle. My interests fall within the usual locus of nerd-dom: music, mathematics, science and the intersections of those things.
I shot this on a rainy day in 2006. I was working within a form I call the "corner tableau" where you try to make interesting photographs of people gathered at street corners. This photo was shot from across the street in order to get a clear view of the faces as people wait to cross. The gentleman had been waiting for a bit when the woman came along. They were alone on the corner so I knew they would at least glance at each other. I snapped the two photos as I noticed their heads turning.
BP:What brought you into photography?
My father did photography as a hobby and that was my first introduction to it. This was in the days when there was only film and manual focus lenses. I was impressed with what my dad could do, but achieving critical focus even with a split prism was a bit beyond what my eyes were capable of. So I didn’t pursue it, though I never lost interest. Jump ahead twenty years to the early 2000′s; auto-focus was an old technology and digital cameras were taking over. In the meantime I’d built a career as a computer systems analyst and programmer. So by then cameras were ready for me and I was ready to embrace the digital technology. It was a good fit.
I live in Seattle but I was shooting in Manhattan when I made this photograph in 2007. I had noticed the advertisement on this payphone as I walked past and thought it could make a funny photo if someone were using the phone. I circled back and loitered, hoping someone would come along and use the phone. In these days when everyone has a cellphone I wasn't optimistic but it was worth a few minutes waiting. Almost immediately a man walked over and leaned against the kiosk! I made my picture and departed. That's the way it works sometimes. Some days you can hang out all day and get nothing and other days people do what you want, as if you have a mind control ray.
BP: What equipment and techniques do you use?
I use Canon SLRs mainly, and I almost always shoot handheld with no flash. Shooting on the street is easier without a complicated rig, so I’ve kept it simple. As for shooting techniques I do whatever is necessary to get the shot I’m after. I’ve practiced different ways of handling a camera so that I can take picture in situations where the scene would be affected if I brought the camera to my eye. For photos using wide angle lenses I usually pre-focus so that I can get shots off quickly. For long lens work, I let the tracking auto-focus do its job while I concentrate on composition and selecting the right moment to trip the shutter.
untitled I took this photo during the Christmas season in 2007. The Free Hugs brigade were out, spreading good cheer to the harried shoppers in front of a local shopping mall. I noticed various reactions to the huggers and thought a good photograph might be made capturing these reactions. This photo is the best one I made during the time I spent watching.
BP: What is your visual impairment?
Glaucoma has left me very nearsighted in one eye and the same in the other eye plus blurring and doubling. I think the best way a normally sighted person can understand what my impairment is like is to look at a low resolution photograph of a scene, say 640×480, and imagine that’s all the detail they will ever see.
BP: How do you think your images are affected by your eyesight?
I tend toward simpler compositions because large forms are all that my eyes can take in quickly. A really busy scene is too much for eyes to handle and still be able to make reliable aesthetic judgments as quickly as you have to on the street. Also, because my detail vision is limited, I have to rely on body language and past experience to guess how people relate to each other or what they are doing in the scene. Sometimes I guess right, sometimes I guess wrong. Sometimes my poor vision causes me to make strange mistakes.
untitled In this photo I thought I had all the heads in the frame but when I got home I discovered that I'd cleanly chopped off the head of the tall guy on the left. I think a normally sighted photographer would have seen the mistake but I didn't. I decided that the framing error made the photo more interesting than it would have been otherwise, so I kept it.
BP: How do you ‘see’ photography’?
Not sure what you mean here, but I’ll read it as “what is the point of your photography?” I do photography purely as visual art. I’ve done event photography many times as a favor to others, but my own work is done purely for the joy of producing images that are interesting to look at and think about. Some photographers are trying to raise awareness or document some aspect of the world before it goes away, but that’s not me, at least not yet. I just enjoy trying to be creative in the subtractive art of photography.
BP: Tell us about your favorite images and photographers.
I admire Garry Winogrand for his tireless experimentation. He seemed to know like no one else that creativity is a feedback process, although his shooting seemed to border on compulsion toward the end. I admire Cartier-Bresson for his exacting compositions. I admire Joel Meyerowitz for the same reason, and for his eloquence in talking about his process and about photography in general.
BP: What equipment, techniques or technology would help you improve your photography?
I can’t think of anything. I think I’m doing photography at just the right time technology-wise where I can work easily despite my disability and make the utmost of whatever artistic vision I have.
BP: What did I forget to ask?
“Do you feel at a disadvantage to other photographers?”
I think I would feel that way if my vision had been normal and then I lost my sight. My vision has never been better than it is, so I’ve only ever perceived the world this way. I notice other people seeing things that I can’t see but I can’t really imagine what life like that would be. So I think of the way that I apprehend the world as being different rather than better or worse, and the way I do photography is just an extension of that difference.
You can find more of Kyle Jones’ images on Flickr.
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i am a fan of great work.