Today we’d like to introduce you to Jay Lawson.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I first picked up a camera simply due to a need to break free from what I called my life. I figured it would be better to give myself a creative outlet rather than letting my mind slowly decay, sitting and doing nothing with myself, forever wishing I could make something of myself.
I had a good childhood though, I don’t mean to sound like I didn’t, but there was always that itch on my back that I couldn’t reach; and itch to create something but at the time I didn’t know what to do.
I found myself owning a digital camera my senior year of high school and took very plain and rather boring images, but that didn’t matter to me then. I was having fun and that’s all I cared about. That was until I started college. I went out into the city in the dead of winter, snapped my shutter, and I stared at the screen of my camera in awe that the image I saw was taken by me. That was the bug that bit me.
From then on, I took photography more seriously, I enrolled in college courses and then decided to buy a disposable film camera for fun. Bug #2. Shooting with that $4 film camera changed the way I felt about pictures completely. There was something about shooting with film that called to me. Before I knew it, I owned multiple cameras, all of which being film cameras and none being digital.
I’ve been shooting film for about 2 years now and I don’t see myself ever stopping.
Please tell us about your art.
My current work has been studies of urban areas and how strange they can be. It’s not just this oddness that I aim for either; I’ve also been focusing on street photography to coexist with these strange urban pictures. There’s a certain feeling of anonymity that I absolutely love when taking street photos.
My objective of these pictures is to tell a story; to make people wonder. “Why is that the way that it is?” “Who lives there?” “What is this person like?”
It almost seems as if not knowing anything about someone or something forms this oddly intimate bond between the viewer and the subject, whether its a stranger or a strange place.
Do you have any advice for other artists? Any lessons you wished you learned earlier?
Don’t be afraid. Of anything. Of failure, rejection, being unsure of your own style, or whatever it may be. It takes time to find out what drives you and what pushed you to be better and to create. Everyone starts somewhere and everyone takes time to get to where they want to be.
My only regret is not diving headfirst into my passion sooner.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
Most if not all of my work I post onto my Instagram, although I am currently in the process of building a website. The website will have photos and prints available to view/purchase and I am also hoping to make a larger study at some point in the near future and creating some form of zine with it which would also be available for purchase on my website.
Contact Info:
- Phone: 786-972-1311
- Email: jay.photography.jay@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/jay.not.jay
Image Credit:
Jay Lawson
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
