Fletch’s Introduction
I can’t remember exactly when I first noticed Sam’s pictures on Instagram – but I do remember thinking that they had a distinctive American, or Californian look to them. I’m from Australia and have never set foot in the US, so perhaps I have some stereotypical image floating around my head – but these pictures of Sam’s definitely fitted that image for me. There is a documentary quality to them that doesn’t quite fit the format of Instagram – I think they somehow need to seen as a body rather than the parts. When I spoke to Sam about that, he put it really well in saying that some stories require joining pictures that link one image to the next, but don’t necessarily stand out well on their own, or viewed out of context. He compared them to the joining words in a sentence such as “and”, “is”, and “but” – all very important in forming the story – but not meaning much on their own.

I see Street-photography involving people as the subject split into three categories. Photos that use people as forms in the overall picture, photos that exploit the subject, and photos that give us a little insight into the subject. I place Sam’s images in the last category. You can see that he actually cares about the people he is shooting, and wants to tell their story. This is Sam’s story – read on if you’re interested.

F:  Fletch (Jason)  S:  Sam

F. I know of you as Sam from LA and that’s about as far as it goes. Is there anything more you can tell us about where you hale from, and what you are up to generally?

S. While I wasn’t born in the LA area it’s all I can remember and I’ve been living locally to the house of my childhood since I moved out.

F. So what led you to Instagram in the first place, and how did you find the experience of getting started and establishing a community?

S. I think the first picture I posted on IG was after I had read an article about IG on Twitter, which talked about this app that had some cool features mostly featuring the filters. So I downloaded it and gave it a try but had no clue about the social aspect of IG, and so soon abandoned it until I met another user who enthusiastically re-told me about it, and so that is when I really joined IG but still not fully committed, but committed enough to joining@joshjohnson did his Bunch of Squares (?) tour when he was out in LA. I took my daughter and met some great folks in the rain down in Santa Monica. I met some great people there and still shot with some of them regularly @ampstacy @davidag and @isabellorance (S/P). Meeting folks was a huge key to what IG was about and made it much more exciting and I became much more involved with mobile photography.

F. When I first started following you on IG, I thought you were a pretty talented street photographer with a keen eye for a well composed photo. But looking back at your early work they seem a lot more experimental – as if you were learning your craft. Had you had any previous experience with photography before picking up the iPhone and going on IG?

S. Over the years I have had various cameras but it was mostly for family shots or documenting family events or shooting while out and about but never to go out shooting. On my honeymoon, some local fishermen told my wife that I was going to die as I was leaning over some cliff to get a shot of something or other, so I’ve been drawn to the adventure of photography for a long time. Back then I was using disposable film cameras. Mostly what I was interested in shooting was nature stuff or animals, subjects that I still am interested in and still shoot, but typically now I will shoot animals, mostly birds, with my DSLR. Those photos I did take when I did get a digital point and shoot it was much of the same subjects but they just were uploaded to my computer to die – meaning that they were rarely seen even by my own family. I did become much more interested in the “art” of mobile photography when I had a Treo and started to upload some of them to Flickr. It became a little more of what you might see now with my shots but without people, more abandoned buildings, street art, decay, etc, with social commentary tags along with them, which you will still see on my feed – the social commentary or observation.

F. Another thing that I noticed when I went back through your photos on Instagram is that early on your photos are almost completely devoid of people, and then you slowly begin to introduce them to your stream, and now presently, people are the core focus with your photography. Did you find it hard to take people photography early on, or were you just not that interested?

S. I would say there has been substantial growth in this area. The Picture of the woman asleep on her break at work is one where even though she was sleeping I was very nervous taking. Taking a picture of strangers was difficult from my feet; however, being from the car culture of LA one tends to adapt to their surroundings ::wink wink:: I think this has a lot to do with several facts. One I don’t walk around too much, I drive. Second, I’m from a smaller town and so people I see or shoot I tend to see again which adds to my hesitance to shoot folks from my neighborhood. Third, the most obvious, I hadn’t done it before. That’s why it was so helpful to see @koci and @konstruktivist and others on the photo walk on 1197 and how they would approach people – that helped to open my eyes to the reality of mobile street shooting. I will say that @ampstacy has also shown me just about being a straight forward and in your face photographer. There was one mobile photographer who’s work I was so blown away with that when I heard that @cachafaz was in LA, I had to see how he worked and I’m lucky to have been able to meet up with him and learned from him as well. With the help of these and others others I’m working at getting over the editor in my head.

F. You mentioned that it has taken you around 9 months to grow that distinctive beard of yours – what’s the story behind that? Could it be some kind of guard to hide behind when you are taking street photography; something that almost hides you from the people you are taking photos of? 

S. I have been growing it probably longer than 9 months. As far as a guard to hind behind while shoot I would say its a big negative. Some people consider taking pictures of strangers creepy – some people consider men with long beards creepy – but the two together and the combination it isn’t beneficial. I will say that I don’t think it has hurt me any either at least not that I have been able to tell directly. There isn’t a story other than I like it…I don’t think anyway.

F. I was a little overwhelmed by the number of quality shots you have posted up on Instagram, you have obviously found a way to incorporate photography into your daily routine. Do you head out especially to take photos, or do you just happen to grab opportunities as they arise?

S. This has changed over time. Early on I use post a picture or two a day from that day or the previous one having been “grabbed”. I would rarely post anything beyond that. However, there were times when I would be showing pieces that were more of a story and would do batch posts but i tried to keep them small so as not to overwhelm – thinking back to my posts on the closed youth correctional facility. I’ve now started to move those “stories” over to blurb mobile (i hope they fix their UI soon). But in the past few months I’ve been meeting up with other IGers and making a day of it (most notably @ampstacy and the now @streetsniper) pictures from these days will last me a week or two of posts. I’ve also covered events like a MMA fight and a rodeo as well as Occupy LA on a few occasions with the intent on shooting. Others times I take what I happen to come across most notably of these would be anything tagged #noseatbelt. I am working on a couple of projects now that are organized and working with others. I try to have my camera always ready.

F. I’m a big fan of the American documentary photographers Robert Frank and William Eggleston who both come to mind when I look through your stream. Are you influenced by their work or any other photographers?

S. I am embarrassed to say that I had to look those guys up. After doing some research on the two I agree (from what I read) with Robert Frank and enjoy showing the reality of the promise. In his day (50s especially shooting “The Americans” there was a much bigger promise about the American Life and its seems that more folks bought into it – I don’t think that is the case anymore but we are still referred to the America Dream while the nightmare continues. I like to think that I offer a similar critique of reality – one picture for me that really points to a clear example of is Kitty standing Under the Wall Street sign in LA. When most people think of Wall Street they aren’t thinking LA and they aren’t thinking homeless, and for me that is a very powerful both social and visual juxtaposition . That critique is very powerful. Another one that comes to mind is of this art gallery and let me start by saying I did not do a good job documenting who’s art work is in my picture and I do feel bad about that. However, the message jumped to my mind immediately when I saw the shoot, before i took it. The art work was of these jeans that were painted and stitched together to make an image of the American Flag, but sitting in front of it was this older office chair. This struck me as a commentary on the partnership of commerce or business and the nation, of capitalism and nationalism.

F. What about IG photographers, are there any particular people on there who have had an influence on you and your photography?

S. I have mentioned a few already, there are a ton more I could but there is one who stands out in a different way and that’s @debinsf. She’s been one who’s asked me about my photography and made me think more about what I was doing and saying. I  With that I”m very appreciative about that. It has helped me see that its more than “just a picture” and that others saw me as having a style and a particular voice – even if I’m still working on that process. Again, being new to the art and science aspect of photography any one who was more experienced i looked too in ways in the framing of a shot, the composition, the crop, the edit, etc. When looking to the edit I look at it as a skill to be learned and I will try to explore or learn how they achieved that look so I can have it in my took box, so to speak. When “copying” I try to make sure that I am adding “me” to the equation and not cloning someone else’s personality – which is what photography is about, the sharing of your vision of the world with others. There have been several key happenings, which have helped to form my burgeoning passion, and they have all been meeting people. The first (maybe I mentioned it before) was Josh Johnson’s tour, where I was to meet the first other IGers – aside from the one who made the reintroduction. The second was 1197 conference in SF.

F. I’ve noticed that you mention photo walks with other IG photographers a fair bit. Are these people you have always known, or have you been hooking up with other IG users? All of the folks on here are new to me since IG

S. All of the folks I’ve mentioned on here are those I’ve met since joining IG with the exception of @team_nas (they are my kids).

F. You seem to have settled on a fairly consistent style with your photos these days; much less obvious editing than those you did early on.

S. Above I said I was new to the study photography, but I think its more fair to say that I’m new to editing, while I have had more experience with camera’s and enjoyed taking pictures I never worked with any editing software beyond iPhoto and I would hardly use that. So what you see is a much more critical effort to refine what is already there, in the photo, to bring out what is in the shadows or so highlight the an key area. Recently the crop has been my biggest editing challenge for me. But going back to my earlier work, I was like a novice in the kitchen who know that spices made things taste good so I would throw in the lot of them – I would raid the spice rack of edits, where now I”m trying to use a few fresh herbs and spices to compliment rather than to dominate the flavor of the picture. I think that is something that I have for sure gotten better with using less. I’ll have to say that I’m am embraced of much of my early work and I wonder why anyone followed me – very thankful they did, but man what were they thinking (smiling while I type that). I do still enjoy the big edits and app stacking but I’m not posting those as much any more I’m still trying to find balance between the two sides of “art” and “journalism” if you will.

F. So where to from here? Are you happy snapping away with your iPhone and posting on IG, or do you intend on getting further into photography?

S. Yes and no. The IG community has been amazing and I have to give props to those who created and designed the space. I have to thank so many people on IG for sparking creativity in me – it’s been a long time since I’ve had any. I hear this a lot about this little app that’s helped awaken the dreams and passions of folks and I’ve benefited from their energy and excitement.

I have a love affair with Blurb Moblie and I think that fits into my style of photography much more than IG. I have a hard time limiting a story to a one shot and the presentation of more than one becomes convoluted and lost on IG. However, the UI of BM not being able to communicate to others in any natural way has stopped me from using it. I have started to use a film camera as well as a DSLR – but you haven’t seen that on IG, as I’m keeping these separated. Currently I have three big projects I’m working on now. Two of which involve others and one is a solo project. The solo project is a lengthy photojournalistic project and so I’m learning my way through it slowly but surely. I want to make sure that I do it correctly as I’m wanting these projects to go further than IG. So yes I am happy with posting pictures on IG but that is not what I want to limit my photographic voice.

F. Do you want to tell us a little bit more about the NYC 24 Hours LA project – what’s that all about?

S. We are still working this out so I’ll tell you bout the idea and how that came about. I follow and love what @aliveinncy shows of NCY and I was suprised to see one day that he was commenting something to the effect that he was getting bored or felt a lack of newness. Something along those lines anyway. I had this project I was going to so by myself but was still working out what exactly how I wanted to approach it, but when I read he was looking for a project I pitched him this: Lets stay up for 24 hours shooting  our respective cities picking one picture for each our. I’m sure its been done before but not by me and I’m not sure if @aliveinnyc has – either way on March 24th we are going to start at 12 midnight and shoot around the clock. When that’s done we will select a shot per hour and have 24 hours of LA/NYC. I’m already tired thinking about it. Its a big project trying to show LA in a day and I hope I can do some justice to the idea.

Contact Information:

IG: @whittiersam

Blurb: whittiersam

Flickr: whittiersam

Juxt thanks you both for your art and words.

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About Jason F
He’s a lover, not a fighter
Melbourne Australia based ideas man. In the space of a 1 hour bike ride home from work Jason can be found thinking up a new line of commuter targeted clothing, be working on the opening passages of a yet to be started existentialist novel, imagining himself at the helm of a new start up tech company, and visualising his next photo shoot; only for these ideas to slowly fade away as he settles in for a night of TV and a few glasses of red with his wife and two young kids on the couch.
Currently working on a series of shots titled #lafletcherTV – unfortunately he is stuck between stations at the moment, but promises big things to come…

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Sam Smotherman

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