Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonas Yip.
Hi Jonas, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I imagine many of the photographers you’ve interviewed tell you how they got their first simple Brownie or Instamatic camera as a child. And my story is much the same. But instead of a simple camera I got my first SLR system in the sixth grade, after my interest was piqued by a grade-school teacher who taught us about f-stops and shutter speeds, took us on shooting field trips, and let us print our own prints in the darkroom she had set up at school. After that, the camera and a bag of lenses became a constant companion.
Photography, though, was primarily a hobby, albeit a serious one. I’d shoot to document life. I’d shoot when we traveled. And I had some work published here and there. It wasn’t until much later that I moved towards a more serious, intentional approach towards photography as I experimented more with the medium and the visual possibilities beyond the straight photograph. My road towards fine art photography started with early experiments with homemade lenses and in particular a series of haunting, atmospheric images of Paris that I took with a lens that I made from a small magnifying glass and a lot of tape. I was intrigued by the evocative power of these decidedly imperfect, technically flawed images… and was hooked. That particular series formed the basis of a series called “Paris: Dialogue” which paired the images with poems written in response to each image by poet and scholar Wai-lim Yip, my father. That series was later exhibited at the San Diego Museum of Art, at UC San Diego, and travelled through China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Today, I still explore the “crappy lens” aesthetic, but I’ve also moved towards more experimental approaches and more conceptual work.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The artist’s road is never smooth, I imagine. We all learn to deal with rejection and self-doubt when we don’t get recognition, and then perhaps imposter syndrome when we do. One of my struggles is getting my work out into the world, as I find great discomfort in self-promotion. I’d be perfectly content to just disappear into my studio experimenting and creating new work, and not even worry about whether it is seen. And I often do just that. The creative process is what drives me. The last mile of getting it out there, not so much. Luckily, since moving to Los Angeles I’ve managed to form and grow a network of fellow artists and photographers who support guide, and encourage each other, and in my case help me get over the hump of finishing things and releasing them to the world.
I try to keep a hand in the local photo community where I can. I co-produce Open Show LA (http://openshowla.com), which hosts bi-monthly artist’s talks in an effort to give emerging artists the opportunity to speak about their work in front of an audience. I stay involved with the Los Angeles Center of Photography. And I’ve been part of the team bringing to life several other photo-related projects, such as Lenscratch, The Photobook Journal, and Your Daily Photograph. More recently I’ve joined the board of trustees at the Center for Photographic Art.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My work explores themes of personal identity and memory: the anticipation of nostalgia, the haziness of recollection, the ephemerality of childhood, the sense of place and comfort of home, the pain of loss and displacement: fundamental concepts of human experience that form the building blocks of my identity, ultimately coalescing into an intimate record of the self.
Artistically, I explore the endless possibilities of photographic techniques, mastering the methods but ultimately embracing the wonderful potential in “incorrect” techniques. I thrive on the unpredictable effects of homemade lenses, manipulated photo materials, misaligned planes of focus, and aberrations, which have become my palette for photographic expression. Much of my current work eschews the camera altogether to focus on the materiality of the photographic materials themselves.
The images I’ve shared here represent a variety of projects: “a fertile darkness”, featuring black and white toy camera work, “A House is Not a Home”, about family and the sense of home, “Thirty Three + a Third”, about the nostalgia of record albums and record players, and “Shan Shui: Landscapes Revisited”, in which Polaroid materials are hand-manipulated to reveal evocative landscapes and cloudscapes reminiscent of Classical Chinese Shan Shui paintings. My work is available through Susan Spiritus Gallery (http://susanspiritusgallery.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Most people who know me via photography probably don’t know that I also make music. I was trained as a violinist starting at an early age but by high school had switched to the rock and roll instruments, guitar, bass, keyboards and such and formed a bands with my friends. I’ve continued to record music over the years and have released several albums as part of a few bands (Momzer, The Perfect Nines). Most recently I’ve completed an album for a new solo recording project, Monoluxe, which should be released by the time this goes to press. Give it a listen! (http://monoluxe.com/go/one)
Contact Info:
- Website: http://jonasyip.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/jonasyip
- Youtube: http://youtube.com/@monoluxemusic
- Other: http://monoluxe.com
