Jazzmine Lorraine Evans
Melbourne, Australia
What is your book "The Adventures of my Camera" about?
A few years ago I started a photography project that involved me taking a picture every two hours from 9am until 9am for a year – it was all shot on film. I wanted to make a book out of all of those images but it was just too big of a project so I decided to narrow it down and scan all of the most interesting images over the past few years and that is how the adventures of my camera came about. It took me a really long time to actually stop procrastinating and get it all together. I finished the book in late July 2010. It is 274 pages of back to back images all shot on film and scanned over a period of months and months (and many cups of tea) and was made by myself.
In what context did this project emerge?
It emerged because of peer pressure, people telling me I should do something with my photography and me feeling guilty for not doing so! Haha.
What concept/thought lies behind the plan of taking pictures every two hours from 9am until 9am for a year?
It started as an initiative to help me to maintain taking pictures. I didn’t want to become one of those people that finished study and lost their passion. As I got more involved it became more of a personal documentation process. For example; I didn’t cut my hair for the year, I had a girlfriend for the majority of the time that I was taking the pictures and as you could imagine she was in quite a few of them and all of a sudden she was gone, no longer in the images. It also documented how routine life really is.
Looking at your project, one presumes that most of the pictures taken were spontaneously: was it so, or did you also incorporate some planned images that you developed along the way?
I would not say they are spontaneous but on the other hand I do not plan out pictures in a way that a fashion photographer may. For me the image I am looking for already exists in my mind and I wait patiently until I feel that image is about to emerge and that is when I take the picture. I don’t ever just take 10 pictures. I usually only ever take one maybe two at a time.
In the "about" section of your portfolio you write that you think of photography as a way of reinventing the past. What do you mean by "reinventing"?
The year project that I undertook really made me realise that all of what happens in life has already been done before, well most of it. Though my images I started to see that the mundane and the exciting were always reflected but maybe in different ways each time. Also I know that when I look at certain images it takes me back to a point in my life, it may be a positive or a negative point. It is a process that helps me reflect on where I am going, how I am going to get there and how I am going to do it differently then the first time around. For me, that is how photography reinvents the past...
And what is scarier: future or the past?
The past is way more scary then the future. I like the unknown.
How did you get involved in photography in the first place?
I have been taking pictures since I was about 8, photography has always been a way for me to document what is going on around me. It started with me documenting my mother and over the years I have continued to do that but instead of my family I mostly take pictures of the people that come in and out of my life.
So you've been involved in photography for quite a long time. Would you say that your work developed continuously or took inspirational leaps from time to time?
I think my photographic style has always been the same in that my images often do appear as spontaneous. What I have realised though is that all the images I take are a reflection of how I felt in that moment or of the people that are in my life at the time. Overtime the people change but I feel that my general vision is always represented. In 20 years I am sure I will not be taking pictures of 25 year olds, I will be taking pictures of the people that are in my life 20 years from now. Looking back on previous images is what inspires me to create more.
Do you have further projects you are planning or working on currently?
I am planning on moving to London next year and am very excited to see some of the images I will take of the crazy adventure called life!
Take a look at her work!
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