Interview with Jake Stangel

For those who aren’t familiar with your work can you give tell us a little about yourself?

Well lets see, my name is Jake Stangel, I’m 23, I’m an Aquarius I believe, and I’m currently drinking coffee. It’s 5:46 pm on Friday, September 18th, 2009. I’m sitting at a red dining table, and using a piece of newspaper as a mouse; my finger cramps up if I use the pad on my laptop.

You can find out a more ‘official’ background here starting on page 54. I’ve always been attracted to the camera, and it’s really the only art form I can do. I suck at drawing and most types of design, I can play drums OK, but photo has always been the best way for me to express myself. I don’t consider myself that artsy, though I love going to museums and galleries. I just don’t know about the fine-art world really. Certainly appreciate it though.

I’m most interested in editorial photography, and if we went into any bookseller together, I’d go straight to the magazine section and stay there until it’s time to leave.

Finally, I am very outdoorsy, and catch myself in many moments considering selling all possessions, except for my camera gear, sports gear, and laptop, and retreating to a small cabin high up in the forest somewhere.

Do you remember the moment you decided to take on photography as a profession? What do you think drove you to photography?

My senior year of college, when I worked first for Jeff Riedel and then Richard Renaldi. To be honest, I thought I was going to be a creative director at some really cool ad agency for awhile.  But I came to love photography more and more, and in addition to working for those guys, I did some of my own editorial assignments for a couple snowboard magazines that year. I really loved living a double life of sorts, of driving out of NYC and shooting on weekends all winter, then racing to class Monday morning with a google tan. Not to mention I could bring friends and get them free gas, food, lift tickets, etc. It was all totally rad. And I thought, damn, why not keep pursuing this amazing life, doing exactly what I dreamed of doing since near middle school? So here I am.

What drives the passion you clearly have for photography now?

I think it’s something very internal, if there’s a photography DNA strand of some sort, I feel like I have it, that as best as I can put it. It’s an absolute love and very pure, direct relation that I have… some sort of drive and I’m not sure where it came from, but it just feels very natural.

That said, I’m not ‘obsessed’ with photography… I don’t have a camera slung around my neck at all times, and I take very conscious breaks away from it. I think it’s incredibly important. Sometimes nothing can give me pleasure more than not having a camera, and appreciating a completely unadulterated moment… being at complete peace with that.

What “things” have influenced your work?

Is it lame to say life and mother nature? That’s what I think of first… the beauty found so often within the little moments of those two things. Next, I think about sociology, economics, the human condition, the newspaper… how I feel towards social, and socioeconomic, situations on a macro and micro level: everything from how a little kid plays with their friends in the most uninhibited way, all the way up to these incredibly disturbing mass layoffs happening daily, as megacorporations leave thousands of their own loyal employees without jobs at the drop of a hat.

Artistically, I’m inspired a lot by the wonders of music, how its this completely open-ended medium where you can literally create anything possible. And all the results of that ‘experiment’… it’s like looking at how minds work. The infinite possibilities. You get hip-hop, you get Bach, you get Britney Spears, you get jazz, you get house. It’s amazing.

Is there is a common “theme” that you would say runs through your photos?

Probably the social influence I’d say, the thing I talked about earlier. I’m very interested in American economic history, and this seismic shift of economy that we’re in the middle of. Not the bailout, but literally how our economy, our country, in the 20th century was built upon industrial production, and now it’s all left, and nothing comparatively major industry has replaced it. So we have towns of all sizes dying across our country. And what happens to those people, all those millions of families, faced with no prospects? That’s what I’m interested, and I hope it’s a faint theme that will grow stronger in the future. At this point, it certainly is in the back of my mind when I shoot.

Aesthetically, I’m a pretty low-key person, very observant, and I love to find beautiful, naturally occurring compositions.

You’ve been teasing your viewers and readers that your new work and it’s finally here. I’m excited to finally ask….

Sure, my new main project “Pontiac Dream”, a commentary on America’s transitioning identity that I’ve been talking about, as it drifts away from a local mom-and-pop, industry-proud culture and moves toward a more corporately maintained society. The project looks into our country’s past heritage, in attempt to identify the seeds that sow our future.  For me, this series is an open-ended retrospective a former country’s sophisticated, iconic, and grandiose power. With an understanding of these roots, it’s up to the viewer to infer how such rich cultural characteristics have led us into the much more desiccated country we live in today.

I also just finished “Visual Diary”, which is a visual recollection of my experience bicycling across the country, from South Carolina to California, with 30 friends this past summer.

There is a photo in your Portrait series of a boy sitting in a chair that I really love (first photo on this page).  Can you tell us the story behind the photo?

This shot is of a boy named Brendan that I met in Gooding, Idaho. He’s actually the sister of the girl who appears later in the “portraiture” series, and is a friend of the other young boy who looks like he’s behind glass, also in the portraiture section. Gooding is a small town like many small towns throughout the country- often very quiet, people going about their day, small businesses, a 5-block main street. These three kids were part of a crew of about 7, and they spend each summer riding around the entire town on their bikes, going to the swimming pool, and playing on a trampoline that occupies one of their backyards. It was classic Sandlot: just good natured, adventurous kids that have each other, their bikes, and a pair of swim trunks to occupy their entire summer, and they love every second of it. No overreaching parents, no facebook or computer for that matter, just pure socialization. Plus they were seriously the sweetest and most well adjusted kids ever. They even said please and thank you, unprompted. It was amazing. I

Naturally, as they patrolled the town on their bikes, they spotted us as we rode into Gooding for the night, and we all hung out for most of the afternoon. No stress, just backflips on the trampoline and hanging out all day.  knew I wanted to do photos of them, for sure, but hung out for a while first to get to know them, then brought out the 4×5, all set up, which was a spectacle in itself. They liked the camera alot, and I showed each of them how it worked, and why the image ends up in reverse. Then did portraits eventually. I asked Brendan to sit in that chair, but he kind of boyishly sprawled out and gave me a tough guy look. It was more than I could have ever shaped on my own, and it was just one of those moments where it was best to let the subject take his on own pose. He stayed real still, kept the same face, and the shot was taken.

How did the idea for your “online blogazine” Too Much Chocolate come about and how do you see it evolving?  The film grant you were able to create with Kodak gives the feeling that TMC is evolving into something more.

The site was an attempt to help people like myself find some semblance of a path towards making a career solely from shooting. If you want to be a CPA or a teacher, there’s a pretty solid path you take, but with photo, or any other creative industry, there are millions of ways to get there. So the idea was to attempt to bring people together and share knowledge. It’s making its way there, but there are a lot ideas I have to help out. I’ve been pondering all of these amazing opportunities on the web for photographers and artists of all sorts, in terms of connectivity, original content, site leverage, and partnerships. The sky is the limit.

Over time, I’ve recognized many opportunities to leverage the site for the benefit of a target part of the photo community. I’m just very focused and excited about the community potential of things- be it the rotating galleries or the open invitation for readers to contribute to the site/interview photographers they really love. I like how all this content is created from within, with many back-and-forths from several parties, as opposed to one single person directing information outwards.

It wouldn’t be far from the truth to say I’m developing the site one month at a time at this point. I couldn’t do much in the way of progression this summer since I was on that bike trip (rode cross-country this summer over three months), which cut into my time to develop the site more, do more interviews, etc. But now that the trip is done, and I’ve been thinking pretty critically about all of these massive opportunities on the web for our little social group, in terms of connectivity, original content, site leverage, partnerships, and blogs’ transition from single-source to perhaps a mini-magazine staff/output. Lots of opportunities on the horizon….

Thanks so much to Jake Stangel for participating in this interview.  Thanks Jake!  Please see more of his work at his personal site and definitely give Too Much Chocolate a visit.