Portraits of a history professor who brings working stiffs to life (especially early European artisans)

From the first e-mail I received from Sarah G. Ross, PhD, I knew I was fortunate enough to meet a kindred spirit. Sarah's delightful and wicked sense of humor, quirkiness, and warm humanity made her a joy to photograph, as well as an honor due to her impressive background as an academic and author in early European history at Boston College,

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History professor, Sarah G. Ross, PhD. Boston College's Stokes Hall, Chestnut Hill, MA.

Given her background, Sarah was looking for an academic/author portrait that placed her in the Gothic architecture at Boston College; the more Gothic, the better, said Sarah. She also requested dramatic light, which I was happy to deliver. Much of her work follows the everyday life of past European artisans, and it was only fitting that the imagery, in a nod to her subjects, would be infused with art and beauty.

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History professor, Sarah G. Ross, PhD. Boston College's Bapst Library, Chestnut Hill, MA.

With my assistant, Tim, we kept an eye out for archways, textured stone, and stained glass to frame Sarah's portraits, and Boston College's campus did not disappoint. Our only sadness was that unlike Oxford University, the inspiration for BC's architecture, there was a sad lack of gargoyles on campus. We joked that should we do another shoot, we would have to install stealth gargoyles somewhere - perhaps the BC version of a MIT-like "hack."

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Who said that professors were formal? Sarah made my assistant, Tim, and I crack up during lighting tests. 

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History professor, Sarah G. Ross, PhD. Boston College's Bapst Library, Chestnut Hill, MA.

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My assistant, Tim, helping out Mother Nature with the lighting.

Despite our sad lack of gargoyles on campus, we found a surplus of beautiful locations to shoot, and as the sun and rain came and went, got some gorgeous moments, with some help, as needed, by strobes and our voice-activated light stand, Tim (who is a retired historian himself).

Sarah now has a collection of images to chose from to use for her professional needs, whether it be a speaker bio, author photo for an upcoming book, or for online professional use on her academic blog. All in all, this shoot was delightful from start to end, and I look forward to following Sarah's work in the future!

Shalon interview featuring author Robin Lippincott: part of the independent creatives series

A few months ago, I posted about the Shalon, a cross-collaborative professional creative group formed between myself, an author, an artist, and a filmmaker. Inspired by the concept of 18th century French salons, we decided to meet monthly to discuss our goals, be accountable to one another, and brainstorm ideas. The three menfolk of our group suggested the name based on the first three letters of my name. Being an independent creative professional can challenge the most stalwart of creative souls, and this group helps keep all of us focused and productive, both creatively and from the business standpoint. I hope that this, and future interviews with fellow independent creatives will inspire and support those of us making a living with our art. In that initial post, I mentioned that I'd be focusing on the Shalon-ers individually so you can learn a little more about them and their work. This week, I interviewed our resident writer, Robin Lippincott, the author of the novels "In the Meantime", "Our Arcadia", and "Mr. Dalloway", among many other published works.

Robin Lippincott, photographed at Mt. Auburn Cemetery

Sharona:

Hi Robin, and thanks so much for speaking to us about you and your work. Could you tell us a little bit about you and your work?

Robin: I am a writer of literary fiction and nonfiction. I have two books coming out: Blue Territory: A Mediation on the Life and Work of Joan Mitchell (November 2015), and Rufus + Syd, a young adult novel co-written with Julia Watts (Spring 2016). I am also the author of the novels In the Meantime, Our Arcadia, and Mr. Dalloway, and the short story collection, The 'I' Rejected. My fiction/nonfiction has appeared in over 30 journals, including "The Paris Review," "American Short Fiction," "Fence," "Memorious," "The Literary Review," "The New York Times Book Review," and others. I teach in the low-residency MFA Program at Spalding University, and am also an avid film/museum/gallery goer, as well as a frequent walker in the city.

Sharona: How did you first venture into writing?

Robin: I first got into writing as a result of grief, not death but loss, as has been true for so many writers—one long, hot, long ago summer in Central Florida, where I grew up. Van Gogh's letters to his brother, collected in Dear Theo, and Anne Frank's Diary, were seminal aspects of my aesthetic and moral education that summer.

Sharona: 

What are the greatest challenges in your work, and what helps you overcome them?

Robin: The greatest challenge in the work itself is simply getting it right, and in creating something that's beautiful and true. And then there are the challenges that occur at the intersection of art and commerce, at which there's most always a collision: sometimes it's only a bump or a scratch or a dent; at other times the vehicle is totaled. In both cases, you've just got to keep at it, teeth (sometimes) gritted.

Sharona: Whose work do you admire or influences you?

Robin: The list is long. I consider Virginia Woolf and D. H. Lawrence as my literary parents, with Emily Dickinson as a great aunt, and from there it's largely the great minds and/or stylists (the writer's writers), as well as a few Southern writers, whom I most admire. Here's a shortlist:  Susan Sontag, Joan Didion, John Berger, William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, James Baldwin, Elizabeth Hardwick, James Salter, Grace Paley, James Schuyler, Toni Morrison, Renata Adler, Michael Ondaatje, W. G. Sebald, Anne Carson....

Sharona: 

How is the Shalon, or meeting in other creative professional groups, helpful to you?

Robin: The Shalon is invaluable to me for several reasons. First, I believe the artistic pursuit (and the life that goes with that) is best and perhaps only really understood by other artists; in my experience, non-artists just don't/can't fully get it. And so I receive meaningful emotional support, both generally and also specifically. And I also get ideas and inspiration, and stimulation, as well as direct, inside exposure to the work of artists working in other art forms.

Robin Lippincott, photographed at Mt. Auburn Cemetery

Why I photograph authors

Today, I learned about the passing of one of my favorite authors, Terry Pratchett, from a particularly nasty variant of Alzheimer's Disease. When I heard that he had died, I felt the loss keenly, in that particularly odd way that feels both deeply personal, and somewhat bizarre, given that I hadn't really known the man in the here-and-now sense of the word. I had been reading Sir Pratchett's books since I was an adolescent, and since he was an extremely prolific author, I avidly consumed his new work nearly every year, as excited to get my hands on his new hardback novel as others my age were to go to the hippest of concerts or shows.  So much of a person goes into writing a book; there is a reason that writers sometimes call their books their children. In that sense, I felt I knew Terry, or at least his wry outlook, quite well. Witty, insightful, and wise, Terry's work was not only an escape, but also an entry into the sharp observations of a brilliant satirist that helped me see everyday life through a wiser pair of eyes.

Mr. Pratchett's work, as well as countless others, informed the way I saw the world; as a small girl I was terribly shy, and felt at least as tied to the characters I met in stories as I did in everyday life. In my early childhood, I shared a room with my eldest sister who was profoundly affected by Down's Syndrome and associated medical conditions, and I wanted some answers about life from day one. Books became my portal to understanding, or at least the first glimmers of it. From C.S. Lewis to Anne Frank, Lewis Carroll and P.G. Wodehouse, it was in the act of reading that I became a keen observer of people and their stream of thoughts and emotions. I learned strength and transformation from the stories of Frances Hodgson Burnett, courage from L.M. Montgomery, and history from Sydney Taylor. When I struggled with understanding human nature (Pratchett), or finding meaning in the chaos of growing up (Viktor Frankl and Elie Wiesel), I delved into a book, both for solace and for answers.

As I grew older, I used my camera to explore human nature, and still later did my graduate work in counseling psychology, to find more answers. But it all started with losing myself in the printed page. As a photographer, we're told in schools and seminars to photograph what you know. We are to ask ourselves, "What brings meaning into your life? What draws you in, and what transforms you?" So for me, choosing my preferred subjects was just a matter of looking for my own axis. And it was also a way of saying thank you for all the wisdom I'd gained from my childhood idols (thank you Madeline L'Engle, Willo Davis Rogers, Robert Heinlein), to the written voices that instructed me on how to counsel (Carl Rogers, Aaron Beck), and to those that brought me a smile when the day had been awful and I simply needed a good yarn to regain my faith in humanity (Neil Gaiman and Pratchett, Good Omens). Now, reading aloud to my own daughter allows me to transfer that love and knowledge to the next generation (J.K. Rowling, thank you for many warm evenings of sharing your magic with my family, each of them chiming in with their own take on your beloved characters).

Now that I've been photographing authors for about five years, I can also tell you that authors, as a group, are a joy to partner with - people of substance, with rich inner lives, often wickedly funny. Many of them (but certainly not all) have an introverted sensibility which I bond with, because the challenge I most enjoy is bringing the insides of complex personalities to the forefront of an image. It is such a privilege to have the opportunity to work with a some of the great minds that are creating today's stories - many of whom I have, or will create visual stories about in this blog in the months to come.

So, perhaps this is my love letter to the storytellers, as well as my explanation for why I do what I do. Thank you, especially, to Sir Terry Pratchett, for your legacy. You, and your stories, will be so missed.

 Image credit: Terry Pratchett photographed by Chris Balcombe

When a Boston blogger needs a headshot...

Katrina McCarty, who moonlights as a blogger in addition to her 9-5 policy/legislative work, contacted me because she wanted a portrait that captured her character as well as her writing conveyed her thoughts. She had seen my Boston Authors Project work, and wanted her headshot to convey her persona with a similar artistic sensibility as the Boston author portraits. No fake smiles, no staged setups, no unnecessary props. She just asked that I bring the essence of her personality to a photograph simply and elegantly, which I was delighted to do!

What I loved about working with Katrina was her wry, understated sense of humor leavened with a wicked soupçon of sarcasm. Just a tiny quirk of an eyebrow brought an entirely new meaning to a sentence and I had a terrific time working with her, laughing during the entire session. Yet Katrina also had a wonderful earthy warmth about her, and there was a lovely sense of comfort just being in her presence. I felt that bringing both these sides to her personality would be key in creating a three-dimensional portrait.

In this final image, I admit was going for a bit of Mona Lisa-style sarcasm/mystery, using Renaissance painting-like lighting techniques to convey the slightest hint of a smirk. Working with writers is one of my favorite challenges because there's so much subtext to their personalities, and bringing that richness to a photograph is one of the great joys of my job.

Kelly Link, author of "Get in Trouble", in the news

Kelly Link's new book of short stories, "Get in Trouble", came out out February 9th, 2015, and in honor of her well-recieved work, I thought I'd focus on her photo shoot from last fall. Kirkus Reviews wrote of her book, "“In stories as haunting as anything the Grimm brothers could have come up with, Link (Magic for Beginners, 2005, etc.) gooses the mundane with meaning and enchantment borrowed from myth, urban legend and genre fiction."

Kelly, a warm, gentle, and thoughtful person, was just a joy to work with. She, and her friend and fellow writer Holly Black, drove from western Massachusetts for to be photographed the same day, and we alternated between my studio and the beautiful Robbins Library in Arlington, MA. Kelly and Holly are close friends, and we all collaborated together on the shoot, both in our research and the details. Both women write in the fantasy genre, and they had developed a firm friendship after meeting at a writer's convention and discovering they lived close by.

Kelly's work, along with some of the other imagery I've taken of her, has been mentioned recently in Wired, Salon, NPR, the LA Times, and The Stranger, among many other media outlets. Congratulations, Kelly!

Writer's block

Writer's block: How do you visually describe feeling stuck?

Daphne Strassman, Brookline, MA writer

I recently collaborated with the lovely and insightful writer, Daphne Strassmann, in creating a shoot that represents feeling stuck creatively. Whether a writer, artist, or photographer for that matter, every creative person has faced their inner well running dry. This shoot evolved as Daphne and I were having coffee together, and she mentioned being mid-transition both literally and figuratively, and how it had affected her work; half her house had no furniture in it due to moving and construction, along with other significant changes weaving through her work and her family. All these disruptions in her external life had affected how she moved forward with her memoir.

Something about the way Daphne described her empty rooms called to me, along with what was happening in conjunction with her life, and I wanted to capitalize on that while photographing this very thoughtful person. I felt really excited as she described her empty rooms. So, as I arrived at Daphne's place in Brookline, MA, I was delighted by the raw structure of the space as well as the feeling of only slightly ornamented emptiness I found.

Only minimally draped furniture, and just a few odds and ends decorated the room, as Daphne took her place in it. Only her glasses and the notebook she used for her note taking were well-used items. I had Daphne either gaze at me our out the window as I worked and tested, noting her body language as time went by, and noticing when she didn't react to me any more, as I blended into the unheeded draped furniture surrounding Daphne, only calling quietly to look towards me occasionally when she had settled into her own thoughts.

Boston Authors Project opening September 12, 2014 at GrubStreet

Literary photography: Photographing author Robert Howard

Robert Howard, author of Brave New Workplace, approached me because he was hoping to update his author imagery. In addition to writing about leadership and the workplace, he has recently also written a memoir that integrates literary criticism, another area of expertise, and wanted his photographs to mirror his professional growth.

Because of his new ventures, Bob needed to update both his more traditional headshot, and also wanted a more creative portrait that reflected his new ventures. I shot at his home in Newton, MA, so we could create environmental portraiture that was meaningful to him, and also shot a few updated headshots that he could use for his work in technology and leadership.

Shoot-behind-the shoot: Still images from the SJP video shoot

CE Courtney recently filmed me photographing two of my clients - author Steve Almond and dancer/psychotherapist Audrey LaVallee Belanger. [embed]http://vimeo.com/67943813[/embed]

Sharona Jacobs Photography: editorial portraiture from Sharona Jacobs on Vimeo.

Here you can see some of the imagery captured from my still camera while CE shot the video.

At the Robbins Library with Steve Almond:

Lighting test subject for me: CE Courtney

Lighting test subject for CE Courtney: me

At the Regent Theater with Audrey LaVallee Belanger:

Short film by CE Courtney about Sharona Jacobs Photography

Wondering what it is like to work with portrait photographer Sharona Jacobs? The video, below, gives you a behind-the-scenes peek into how the Boston-based photographer works with the authors, actors, professors, and creative professionals she photographs day-to-day, and includes interviews with several of her clients, including critically acclaimed authors Steve Almond, Jon Papernick, and Rita Zoey Chin. You'll also see examples of her work with NYTimes best-selling novelist Jennifer Haigh, editor of TechCrunch John Biggs, and film and stage actress Tracie Thoms. Click on the Vimeo icon in order to see it full-size. If you don't see the video thumbnail immediately, please refresh your page.

[embed]http://vimeo.com/67943813[/embed]

Sharona Jacobs Photography: editorial portraiture from Sharona Jacobs on Vimeo.

The faceless portrait: author, illustrator, and sculptor Adam J. B. Lane

When I interview artists and authors before I photograph their portraits, the first question I ask is whether the person I'm photographing has any special requests, ideas, or preferences, far before I take out my camera. Children's book author/illustrator/sculptor (narrowing this fellow into a category is a challenging task) Adam J. B. Lane's request was a creative stretch for this portrait photographer: he asked if I could take his photograph without the viewer really knowing what he looked like, so that he could be passed by unrecognized by someone seeing his portrait the moment before.

Curious, I asked why. Adam said he was influenced both by the legendary radio producer Ira Glass and also the author Daniel Handler ("Lemony Snicket") who felt that viewing the physical appearance of a formerly faceless narrator robbed a story of some abstraction and potency.  Adam had always personally found the difference between the impression created by the work and the author in reality a bit of a disappointment, and preferred to be photographed in a way that left something to the imagination.

So I took the approach of letting the images reveal the author primarily through his activities and the wonderful textured environment of his home studio, rather than the entirety of his face. I lit enough of Adam to pull him away from his background, but not enough to define his features. His illustration work is dark and contrasty, and I mirrored some of that feeling through to the photographs.

Adam recently published Stop Thief, a story of a little boy who takes off after a stuffed animal snatcher. His illustrated books are aimed at children, but have a chiaroscuro palette often associated with darker themes. The Lemony Snicket influence shines though Adam's color choices.

The product of both a British and American upbringing, Adam was heavily influenced by comics throughout his childhood and maintains that his success communicating with children comes through a strong case of arrested development. As a child, he remembers not being able to conceive of adulthood and was terrified that life would end after his bar mitzvah, around the age of thirteen.

Later, Adam went on to write and illustrate for the Harvard Lampoon, and upon graduation, moved to Los Angeles to work on Disney feature films.

While at Disney, Adam started going to book stores to do research on what kids wanted in their favorite stories, and fell in love with picture books. He delved into creating stories because he wanted to do something for kids and parents to actively do together, and to be part of the magical relationship of a parent reading a story to a child.

Jennifer Haigh "News From Heaven" author photo shoot

Last June, Jennifer Haigh and I took a walk through one of Massachusetts' most beautiful parks together, World's End, in Hingham. We followed a wooded path through drumlins, low, rolling hills formed by glaciers, until we reached where the Atlantic Ocean reflected the sky. Jennifer walks these paths in order to think and compose, and I thought that it would be an appropriate place to photograph where she puts thoughts together to create her character-driven novels and short stories.

Originally, these images were going to be part of my Boston writers and artists series, but I was very pleased when Jennifer contacted me this past fall to ask if she could use one of the images from the shoot for her upcoming book of short stories set in and around the fictionalized coal-mining town of Bakerton, Pennsylvania, Her new book, News from Heaven: The Bakerton Stories, will be published by HarperCollins Publishers on January 29, 2013.

Jennifer is as she is photographed; direct, thoughtful, intelligent. She has a wry and down-to-earth sense of humor that came through our chat, and often surprised me through the course of our conversation. I remember asking her what she wanted to grow up to be when she was a kid, expecting that her answer might have to do with writing or the arts, and she paused thoughtfully, and replied, "I remember, at age five, wanting to be a gas station attendant." She had no memory of why, and we both chuckled. Obviously, things developed in a scholarly direction for her as she got older, as she ended getting her MFA at the University of Iowa in writing, and as an adult, she said she couldn't imagine doing anything but write.

I loved working with Jennifer because she was confident both of herself and how she enjoyed best being photographed, and also because of her trust in me. The walk was wonderful, and I was delighted to work with Jennifer, photographing her on a beautiful day at the World's End. If you'd like to learn more about Jennifer's work, please visit her beautiful website at http://www.jenniferhaigh.com.

Boston's artists and authors, featuring Bradford Johnson

I'm embarking on a new project to create portraits of some of Boston's most talented artists and authors. Each artist is interviewed and then documented in the space that they work in, or a space inspired by their work. The goal of the project is to reveal through the photographs a real sense of the artist, to tell their stories visually and through narrative, and to gain an understanding of where their work comes from. The first artist I'm featuring is Somerville, MA-based artist Bradford Johnson. Brad's wonderful warm intelligence, wry wit, and good humor was a joy to be around, and spending time with him in his studio was delightful. His work is based on painting the people and places first captured by distant photographers (hmm, wonder why I like this guy?). One of his projects that I find most intriguing is entitled, "Tangible Dreams of a Dying Explorer", and it is based upon the real-life experiences of an Arctic explorer who perished more than one hundred years ago, but whose photographic film was discovered 30 years after the expedition's demise.

As Brad explains: "In 1897, on a barren Arctic island, photographer Nils Strindberg finally escapes the brutal cold when he slips into hypothermia. Shortly thereafter, he becomes the first member of S.A. Andree's Polar Expedition to perish. As Strindberg loses consciousness, he cannot know if his human remains or exposed film will ever be returned to civilization. His compatriots bury him in a rocky grave, and their demise soon follows his. Months earlier, in a daring attempt to explore the North Pole, Strindberg, Knut Fraenkel and Andree pilot a hydrogen balloon into the polar region under the flag of Sweden. Strindberg conscientiously documents key moments even when they crash far short of the pole and are forced to trek for months across the pack ice in an attempt to return home. The remnants of their final camp are discovered over 30 years after their deaths. Among the detritus returned to civilization are detailed diaries and 5 rolls of Strindberg's exposed film. 93 viable negatives are miraculously salvaged."

I photographed Brad in his studio, after chatting with him about how he was drawn to art, what he studied, how he defined himself as an artist, and how he combined his work with being a dad to two kids.

The moment he started to feel like an artist: Brad fell into art in high school - it was his sanctuary. Like many, high school was kind of a drag for him - he didn't really have any energy for the academics, but painting was something that drew him in. During his senior year when thinking about his future, Brad felt kind of lost, but his art teacher suggested that after graduation, he apply to RISD - the Rhode Island School of Design (one of the nation's top art schools) -  and he got in.

Three words that describe Brad's work: "Narrative, material, hand-rendered."

But it wasn't easy: Sometimes its easy to doubt your own abilities. While at RISD, Brad felt like an imposter, despite his abilities, surrounded by other talented artists who were Artists with a capital A. He transferred to a small, vigorously academic liberal arts school, where he enrolled in the drama department, and found like-minded souls. But eventually, the visual arts kept calling, and he switched back to studying fine art, continuing his studies with a MFA from Hunter College in New York, where he lived for five years before moving to Boston to be with his wife.

Finally: "I'm an artist, finally, because I'm unsatisfied with any given answer."

Artist as adult: Artists are often considered solitary creatures, huddled in a garret somewhere, but artists merge into adulthood like those of us in more traditional professions, with all the responsibilities that entails. Brad has two children and a wonderful, supportive wife, Jackie. I asked Brad how the balance works for him, and how difficult it is to pursue his vocation while wrangling pre-schoolers. His response - "it's a whole lot harder, but doable", thanks to great childcare, and a wife with a more traditional employment situation. He also credits a network of fellow creative friends who bounce ideas and provide support for each others' ventures.