Jacob Appelbaum started taking photographs when he was quite young. His first usable camera was a Pentax K1000, lent by a friend of his father. Jacob has documented most of his life through the lens of a camera. He habitually took photographs until midway through high school where he had an art teacher who broke his spirit, bringing him to the conclusion that he could never be an artist. The teacher always wanted Jake to sketch concepts out before he worked on them. An interesting challenge for a photographer who prefers spur of the moment documentary photography.

Fortunately Jacob picked up photography again through the encouragement of artistically minded friends.

Jacob has traveled around Europe, the Middle East and across North America. His subject matter is mostly candid work and essentially none of his work is done in a controlled environment of a studio. His most well know photographs are of war zones and disaster areas. His subject matter is diverse, featuring topics ranging from nude bondage rope work to live artistic performances. Though he prefers candid portraiture as his primary focus.

Jacob’s work has been published in newspapers around the world, mostly for his work in post Katrina New Orleans. His work has also been published in or by Make Magazine, Boing Boing, Other Magazine, the BBC, Scientific American, countless websites and various zines. Recently, he had his first international show in Toronto along with photographerKate Young at the Now Lounge . Jacob currently lives and works in San Francisco, California.

“I scatter myself and take photos of everything that interests me in my daily life.” - Jacob Appelbaum

What are the key ingredients to a good picture?
The traditional thing to say is that photography is a language. I am badly quoting other people here when I say: “The key ingredients to a photo are manipulating your insides, capturing what’s outside and melding the two together”. Context is important. When I am in the mode of documenting, I am supposedly capturing some objective reality. Really though, it’s often what I leave out that creates a good photograph.When I am in what others might consider a more artistic mode or a more contrived mode, I suppose the ingredients are a wonderful model and the willingness to be photographed. With some clever trickery, you really only need an idea. Everything else falls into place if one takes their time.

Some of your images are very imaginative and character based, how do you define & visualize a picture before you take a shot?
Depending on the medium I am working in, whether it’s film or digital,whether it’s large format or something smaller I usually try to visualize what the photo is going to look like. Perhaps as a negative or a digital file of some sort. When composing my photographs, I imagine it divided as one might with the rule of thirds, I consider the golden ratio with a healthy nod to spirals. I think about color tones that it will have, the motion, extreme color saturation, controlled exposure.

What equipment do you use?
I have many cameras these days and that’s my primary equipment. I very rarely use flash units or reflectors. I like the sun or the moon for light, I like trees and buildings for shade. For day-to-day photography I shoot with a couple different cameras. A fully manual Nikon FE2 that was my fathers, I shoot a lot of film with it. For digital work I usually shoot with a Canon 20D and I favor the 30MM F/1.4 Sigma lens. I often joke about being the antithesis to the f/64 group. I keep my aperture open, wide open. I carry a daily pocket camera, the Pentax Optio W20. It’s a water proof and dust resistant camera. Its ideal for keeping in a pocket at all times. I use it as a key chain. For a medium format I switch between a Pentax 67 and a Graflex. In addition I have a bunch of miscellaneous toy cameras, the Holga being my favorite.

How do you distribute your pictures?
The internet. I prominently put photos online for free as a sort of radical way of distributing photos. I’ve found them in use on Wikipedia, blogs, zines, for profit print magazines, as people’s icons for various websites. This is fine with me as I release them all under the Creative Commons .

Generally, I use the Creative Commons Share-Alike-By-Attribution license. Anyone can use my photos published under the Creative Commons for any purpose (even commercially) as long as they attribute my name to it and share alike. Essentially none of my work is restricted by traditional antiquated copyright. I’m not interested in anyone holding copyright over my works for 90 years after I die. I’m interested in contributing to culture while I’m still living, while it’s relevant. So I let others distribute my photographs without worry.

Who were you main influences in your photography?
Lots of not famous photographers. People who will no doubt be well known when their time comes. Angela Goodman helped me to explore and begin to understand context, Stefan Andrizzi showed me details in the way his illustrations are created, Vlad Spears helped me to listen and be patient when I observed, Scott Beale motivated me to participate, Kate Young showed me how to capture beauty in ways that previously made me uncomfortable - she’d tell me that my preconceived notions about process weren’t always correct - to experiment was my task, that beauty could come from even the most crude capture. In the back of my mind, I’d say that my father influenced me indirectly through the artistic endeavors of his life. All of my friends are creators of some sort and all of them shape my perspective. As far as more popular artists go, I’m influenced by a wide range of artists. If I were to name drop a whole hat full, I’d say Edward Weston, Egon Schiele, Matthew Barney, Nobuyoshi Araki, Antonin Kratochvil, Diane Arbus, Aubrey Beardsley, Floria Sigismondi, Frank Lloyd Wright, Helmut Newton, Michel Gondry, Tamara De Lempicka, Edward Gorey, H.R. Giger, Charles Gatewood, Björk, Boyd Rice, Sorrel Smith, Gustav Klimt, Nick Knight, James Nachtwey, the list goes on and on in no particular order.

What projects will you be working on in the future? What direction do you see your work heading into?
In the future I am going to be splitting my time between some fashion and documentary photo projects. The fashion photography is a step in a different direction. Normally I’m disinterested in direct commercial photography but I’ve been asked to shoot photo of anachronistic clothing I find appealing - corsets! I find it enticing because I respect the local artisan and her team. The work they produce is legendary in its quality and it’s aesthetically brilliant. The unique nature of the clothing gives me a good reason to step in a new direction. This winter I’ll be living and working in the Museums Quartier of Vienna Austria . I’ll be working with Monochrom on various documentary photo projects, some event related photography for things like RoboExotica and a large documentary photo project about a type of body modification.

You can see Jacob’s work online where he has published over 11,000 photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ioerror/

and his personal vanity site:
http://www.appelbaum.net/

Interview Conducted by Ingmar Zahorsky
ZahorskyArt.com

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