Bringing 'something different'
to photography

Interview conducted Feb. 19, 2003

Jonathan enrolled in the University of Oregon's MFA program for photography in fall 2002. We talked about the program and how he felt it was preparing him for life as a professional artist :

Dave Goldberg: What were you hoping to get out of the MFA program in photography when you decided to enroll?

Jonathan Smith: I was hoping to get the skills and the sensibility and the piece of paper to actually teach in the future and to be an artist. I never really considered being an artist before, except for my writing. I wanted to understand what fine art is all about and to practice it and to somehow communicate all these ideas that I've have been thinking about for years, ever since my philosophy degree. And to put something up on the wall that contains all that. A picture is worth a thousand words, as they say.

So, in terms of creating pictures that people can look at and understand a philosophical concept, whether they agree or disagree with it....I've definitely gotten that here. For me, the U of O was perfect because the program is so flexible. If you have these ideas, they're gonna find a way for you to do them as best as possible.

DG: How do they do that?

JS: They lead you, not necessarily in a specific direction. They provide you with what's going on in art. And so by studying current artists in photography, they make you aware of what's happening out there. They still leave the idea of what your art is going to be up to you, but they'll say, "Okay, if this is what you want to do, these are the people you should look at. These are the people who have been doing that." And of course, you don't want to copy it, but you should see how they do it because they're able to communicate it well.

So, if I'm talking about body and machine, or machine-body interaction in art, they're going to come up with several different names of people who have been doing that, and I'll look at them and absolutely love their work. And not to emulate them, but use them as a guide on to how to do things and how it can be done.

And then you come up with something that looks like someone else's, and they say, "Okay, that looks great. Now do it your way. How would you do it? Do it differently." They encourage you to play.

DG: I'm curious about the whole starving-artist stereotype, because art school is really expensive. Whereas business students might justify getting their MBAs and the immense amount of money that costs, because they know, or at least, used to know that they'll make that money back. That seems less so for artists. Did the cost of going to art school intimidate you at all?

JS: No, because I had already been through four years of studying philosophy, and you don't open up the want ads and see "philosopher wanted." I think with both philosophy and photography, what you get out of it is a skill that is marketable in a number of different fields. With philosophy you have a skill in writing. You have a skill in critical thinking. You have a skill in editing, which got me a job. I had no trouble getting a job writing PR with my philosophy degree.

With a fine-art photo degree, you may not be as well set up as a commercial photographer to go into commercial photography, but you could do it. And you might be able to bring something different to it. So advertising agencies, I'm sure, would love to have a fine-arts photographer because their work is all about creating a mood and instant feeling with a photograph, and a fine art photographer is better at doing that. Someone with a real flexibility with ideas and who hasn't been taught, "This is how you light this kind of product."

There's a skill you learn in photography that is marketable in the commercial field. Of course, none of us want to go there! (laughs). We would all love to be able to get out of school and start selling art right away. And I'm sure everybody tries. So no, I thought about it, but it wasn't really a consideration.

DG: What do you want to do when you graduate?

JS: I want to try and make it as an artist! I'm willing to sacrifice a career per se, and work part-time jobs and that sort of thing, while spending my other time building my portfolio and my exhibition catalog and selling work.

At the current prices, if I sell 10 or 12 works a year, I could live off that. At $1,000 a piece...it's not a whole lot of money, but it's a start. And you have to start somewhere.