The following is part of a series of interviews launched for Abstract and Surreal photography week in Project Educate 2008.

=loganart is a self-taught photographer, but it would be hard to know that from looking at his gallery!

Basics and Background

Name and location?
First of all, thanks a lot for interviewing me! My name is Jonathan Jacobsen, I'm from Chile (South America, for those who don't know hehe)

How long have you been practicing photography?
I started in 2004, with a little webcam

Do you have any formal training in the arts?
No, I'm self taught.

What cameras are your personal must-haves on a shoot?
I only have one camera: Canon XT. Before that one I had a Canon A75, which I use now only for video recording and when I go to parties or concerts.

How did you come to embrace the genres you prefer to work in?
When I started taking pictures, I did a lot of styles: Flowers, Stains in the wall (Abstract), Pets, Landscapes. But I never thought about my head, then I put attention in my imagination and wanted to do something out of the "real"

Surrealism

Do you have a favorite Surrealist? If so, who and why?
I'm such a fool with names, the only one I remember is Dalí, but he's quite enough. Anyway, everyone is surrealist in some way, starting in the way the people abstract concepts when they talk, for example if you say: "Oh, my head hurts!" or, "Hey!! I'm soo happy to see you". Every sentence has their own way to be created, that's connotative, and connotation has a bit of surrealism on it.

What does Surrealism mean to you in photography?
It's the way I show the others the reality inside my head. Most of my ideas were born in dreams!

Do you find influence from other mediums, like Surrealist painting?
To be sincere, not too much. Because you can find surrealist influence everywhere. Maybe finding surrealism in surrealistic paintings is a bit too lazy because you have the "answer" there in some way, it's like taking beautiful pictures but in Automatic mode, or washing your clothes in the automatic laundry. You lose the experience of discovering, touching, looking, everything. When I see a painting, I don't like to see the main subject. I like to watch the corners, the details, how the paint dries or mixes with other colors, I like to touch. In fact, I hate museums, when they put on the floor this white line to not pass over it, you know? It's like if they were telling you "Okay, this is a dog, and you only can see the dog."

What kind of in-camera manipulations do you perform to achieve Surreal effects and impact?
Sometimes I use textures, like in this one: . Color edition is very used on my pictures, but I don't go to the extremes of copypasting part of pictures. For example "Tantalo's hope" ( ) is just one picture to which I added texture.

What suggestions would you give other photographers about harnessing light to create a desired mood in their imagery?
I'm not against flashes, but I still don't like them. I always recommend to use natural light: you get it everywhere, in different conditions and you can play A LOT with it, and it's free!

Words of wisdom

What advice do you have for beginning photographers?
Don't ask other photographers how to make your pictures looks like theirs, if you want to get an specific effect, go and discover it. Look all around you and find the answers. For example, to get a sort of yellow tone on my pictures. I tried many ways to get it and never got the effect, until my television burned and then when I turned it on it was all yellow, then I said "That's it! I can overlay a yellow layer!". It's sounds silly, maybe obvious, but obviousness are just restrictions.
Other advice? play a lot with your camera, and if you want to edit them, play a lot with photoshop or whatever program you use to edit.

What advice would you give to professional photographers in a rut?
To never go for a Goal. For example: "I want to be like LaChapelle". And the day you are like him, what would you do? Also, to love and be humble.

What advice would you, at present, give yourself 5 years ago if you could reach back in time?
I would have said to myself, with a whip, "Lose your shyness! go for models and make all the ideas you sketched in your books and do them!"

What do you hope people find in your art? Or, what do you hope they definitely don't find in it?
I hope they don't find the superficial of my pictures, I like when people go to the details, the unseen details!

Ego

Who is your favorite deviantART photographer and why?
Hard question, because i like a lot of dA people. But as i have to call one, i'd say ~wordsforsnow. Her pictures are so mature, there's something very simplistic in her pictures that makes me go "WOW" everytime she submits something.

What is your favorite image of your own, so far? Why?
Hahaha this is a hard one. It's like if you were saying a mother "which one is your favorite son?"
Let's say this one it was one of the first times I got those tones, I love the tones on it.. how the red obligates you to look inside the mouth, the pattern on the back and the eyes! I'm in love with those eyes. If you look closer you can see some tears about to go down.

What is your preferred subject (people, objects, places, etc) and why do you like to shoot that subject, whatever the style?
People!
A landscape isn't the same as a landscape with a person inside it. People are emotive machines, and I love emotions. That's what I look for in every picture, emotions that makes you go "Oh".

Favorite ice cream flavor?
Mint and coffee (I like double ice cream!)

If you could be any other person, who would it be and why?
I could say I'd like to be a singer, like Björk, Émilie Simon or Camille, you know.. kind of the experimental singers which don't have limits. But as I have voice, a throat and a mouth.... Why be another person that has the same? Hehehe

Anything else you'd like to say?
Everyone is welcomed in Chile! hahah. Thanks a lot for this oportunity and thanks everyone who reads this!



#Abstractography is the dAmn headquarters for Abstract and Surreal week. Be sure to drop by this week to meet the artists interviewed in this series, myself, and many other abstract and surreal photographers here on deviantART!