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INFO: J. Wesley Brown. 30. Los Angeles, CA.
http://wecanshoottoo.blogspot.com/
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The Photo Coterie: Your entire body of work contains but a few photographs shot in the day. Why is that you shoot predominately at night?
Wesley Brown: Well, it all started with my first digital camera. This was the first time I’d shot in six years and the first time in color and the Canon Powershot I had took really crappy daytime photos - or I was incapable of processing them properly with my rudimentary PS skills - so I started to notice it took good night shots if I’d rest it on or against something, not having a tripod for my 3x4 inch camera. This got me interested in night photography and I kept trying it out, especially since I had a 9-5 so shooting at night was natural. I grew up in one of the safest towns in America, albeit in Los Angeles, yet I’d still be terrified taking the trash out at night, always thinking something was about to jump out and grab me. I still feel this way when shooting at night and while I don;t think of myself as a thrill-seeker really, maybe subconsciously this plays a role. It was really funny - I was watching this video of Todd Hido, who’s been shooting at night for years and he’s got this film crew with him but still, when a car passes by you can see he’s a bit freaked out - just out of habit. It made me smile and feel I’m not so alone.
TPC: Could you tell us about “Nono” and what part you played in it?
WB: Nono is this great short film done by a buddy of mine who I’ve known for years and so it was sort of natural that I’d be the still photographer on the project. It was this really organic and natural time we spent in the desert around the Salton Sea working on the project and sweating a lot in August. I’d always been interested in film and really got excited about the prospect of shooting stills when I saw Teresa Isasi-Isasmendi’s excellent work on Jim Jarmusch’s film, The Limits of Control in Artforum, I think. I didn’t have a blimp so it was a bit of a tightrope walk at times trying to shoot but also stay out of the way and realize that I was not the primary shooter here, which was an interesting contrast.
TPC: How does living in Los Angleles effect your photography?
WB: Immensely. I lived in NYC for three years and then in Madrid for three before moving back to this city I grew up in but had never exepected to return to. In both those cities, you benefit so much from the excitement, social opportunities, and proximity that a compact city with great public transportation affords but at the same time you walk the same streets every day and at times feel like you’ve seen everything before. Also, there are these ubiquitous sodium orange lights in Madrid everywhere so coming back to the US with it’s greater mix of lighting sources and then to Los Angeles, where I can drive 20 minutes in any direction and see things I’ve never seen before is amazing. There’s a reason the film industry took hold here and I truly feel that I’ll never run out of locations here. My Back in the Land of the Free Series was a result of my coming here and reacquainting myself with the American landscape and specifically the Angeleno landscape.
TPC: Are you a photographer by proffesion or do you hold another job?
WB: I hold a BSFS from Georgetown University and an MBA from IE in Madrid. I sometimes wish I’d gotten an MFA but that’s not how it happened and as a result I’m probably more capable than most photographers of running my business should I be blessed enough to make a living from my work. I hold a day job as a financial analyst for LACMA, which is a perfect mix between my intellectual capacity and training and my passion for art, which is awesome because I am connected to art and at the end of a day spent working on spreadsheets, know that my efforts have been for art and culture and not just to make some shareholder a bit richer. It’s much more fulfilling, though less lucrative, than working for an investment bank, which I’ve done before. The best part about it is never having to worry about making money from my art so I’m free to shoot whatever I wish.
TPC: Is there anything going on in your life right now that you want to talk about?
WB: Wecanshoottoo is this blog I run that focuses on photography in Los Angeles and which I’m trying to keep up with the best I can. It features work by local photographers and informs people of photo happenings I think are worthwhile. I hope it’s a valuable resource for anyone in LA or for people trying to locate talent here. Yeah, that and the fact that I quit a pack a day smoking habit 6 months ago. That’s got me pumped these days.
