Jesi Langdale
Chicago Center for Literature and Photography Photographer Feature October 3, 2013
Location: Kitsap Peninsula, Western Washington I’m a Floridian refugee who has relocated to the fog of Washington. I’ve been taking photos since 2007 when I was give a Nikon FM2 by a friend. Much of my work is a mixture of digital and film, depending on what kind of mood I’m trying to capture, as well as my budget. Other than photography I enjoy Christian Philosophy (which is what I currently attend University for), swimming in lakes, reading Chesterton, and spending time with my husband and son.
So many of your images have a naturally intimate, quiet power to them. Do you deliberately set up the shoots this way, or are they more just an outgrowth of the places you find yourself at in your daily life? I believe that it is really both, in a sense. I live in a very quiet place, a small town of less than 4000 with lots of rural land readily accessible, so that makes it really easy to capture something that feels more intimate, but, I really go for that in my shoots, even the more conceptual ones. I want people to feel like they’re involved in a way, as viewers of my photos, and not intimidated or far off. Lots of photos today feel like they’re for a brand or something, or almost like they’re trying to hard to be ‘art’, I just want to put people where I am in a place, or a thought.
How much of the planet have you now gotten to travel through as part of your touring? Is there any time to stop and enjoy the scenery, or are you constantly on the go? We’ve done two U.S. tours, Australia, Europe, UK, and a couple dates in Asia within this year. We’ve had amazing moments of stopping to enjoy the scenery, and some moments I’m glad I’ve captured in photos because I most certainly wouldn’t recall them as well without the second memory bank.
Why are so many of your portraits taken from behind? Is that a deliberate decision? I really try to get a sense of making people feel like they are in this place or time with these people, and seeing things as they are seeing them. For myself too, I want to capture a memory, and it seems so much more real in a dreamlike way if I see the photo as I did when I was standing there. I guess, you don’t stand in front of people staring at them when you’re going somewhere or looking off, so I wanted that kind of feel. I see a lot of photographers doing shots from behind for style reasons, but this is definitely more of a entire concept for me. I think it also has to do with hidden things, not giving the whole story away.
jesilangdale.com flickr.com/jesilangdale willowandpear.blogspot.com cclapcenter.com/features