ON PHOTOGRAPHING CELEBRITIES

I’ve had conversations with colleagues of mine who talk about how they want to photograph celebrities. It’s like if they don’t have celebrities in their portfolio, then they are a failure. But I think that’s a waste of time. 

Why not find your own celebrities?

All the people I photograph are people I admire. They aren’t celebrities in the traditional sense, but they are famous to me. 

You don’t need to be photographing people everyone else is photographing. 

You need to be photographing your people. The people you think are special. The people who are famous to you. 

Forget celebrities. 

Make your own celebrities.

by Jason Lam

1 SECOND EVERYDAY - 2016

A transformative year to say the least. 

I found my smile again. Along with my heart.

Thank you 2016.

by Jason Lam

MADE IN AMERICA

I was born and raised in America, and growing up I was only able to speak Chinese at an elementary level. But I’ve always felt a desire to get back to my roots. As a kid, I would do things like martial arts, dragon boat, and lion dancing because it made me feel Chinese. Maybe I was stereotyping myself, but regardless of that fact, I always felt a disconnect, and I was bent on reconnecting it. 

As I got older, I would make trips out to hang out with my friends in Chinatown every weekend. We spoke Chinese, hung out at the Chinese Playground, and ate Chinese snacks. It felt right. I felt at home during those moments. When I went to college, I studied filmmaking and wrote stories about the Chinese-American experience. When I graduated from college, I studied abroad in Spain for two months but still managed to find a Chinese restaurant to go to for dinner every now and then. After that, I purposely went to live abroad in Taiwan for over a year to learn Chinese. I really enjoyed my time out in Taiwan. I felt at home. Despite it being a bit challenging at times to get around with the language barrier and all, things felt right. When I left Taiwan and moved to New York City, I still managed to find my way back out to Chinatown to buy groceries or treat myself to an egg tart. Before long, I ended up moving into Chinatown in Lower Manhattan and began photographing a local lion dance group while studying at the International Center of Photography. 

Now that I have returned home to San Francisco, it is still very much a part of my identity. I went back to visit Taiwan recently, and I will do so again in a few weeks. I need to feel connected to my culture as much as I need to breath. Listening to Chinese music, making a trip down to Chinatown, or even something as simple as ordering food in Chinese makes me feel closer to … myself. But it's not that simple. Half-American. Half-Chinese. Too American. Too Chinese. Who knows. Chinese-American is the term we often use. Sometimes I feel really American, really Chinese, or just none at all. One thing’s for sure, I love my culture and where I come from. It’s just that sometimes it can get a little confusing.

by Jason Lam

ON PHOTOGRAPHIC STYLE

When it comes to style, one should remember this piece of advice by Persian poet, Rumi:

“Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”

Executing a multitude of styles isn’t difficult. And now, with the internet and the ability to learn a new photographic technique with just a click of a button, being able to do multiple styles doesn’t differentiate you. It just makes you look unsure of yourself. And when you are unsure of yourself, others will be unsure of you. 

Think of style as a friend. We want friends who are consistent. Why? Because consistency means reliability. However, if you’re constantly switching around, then you become unpredictable. You’re here one day, but you’re gone the next. We never know where to find you. We never know what to expect. We can’t trust you. Nobody wants a friend like that.

If we take a look back at the greatest photographers of all time, you’d be hard-pressed to find one who constantly changed his or her style. Daido Moriyama is known for his stark black and whites. William Eggleston for his color. Bruce Gilden for his flash. Salgado for his epic landscapes.

What do people think of when your name is mentioned?

Maintaining a consistent style goes way beyond talent and skill. It’s about integrity. It’s about staying true to whom you are, believing in what you represent, and proudly showing up day after day and doing the work regardless of what others say. 

Granted, as we grow as photographers, it is only natural that our styles will change. That’s normal, but eventually, you’re going to have to make a decision and commit. This is not to say that you are incapable of doing more, or that you are any less of a human being because you choose to do less – it’s about standing for something you believe in, which, first and foremost, should always start with yourself. When you do so, you will find that others start to believe in you. 

It’s not about doing more, nor is it about doing less; it’s simply about doing what is uniquely you.

by Jason Lam

THE JUST DO SOMETHING APPROACH

Forget passion.

Just do something, and you will find passion along the way.

Passion does not have to be a prerequisite for taking action.

I can't say I was passionate about photography when I first started. I was just curious, and then I grew passionate about it later on.

One thing I've learned is the better you get at something, the more passionate you'll become.

Stop searching, and just do something.

by Jason Lam

START BY STOPPING

You got problems. 

So do I.

And when we have problems wearing and tearing away at our lives, we may feel that we must add yet another layer of complexity to our lives. Another dietary supplement. Another workout regime. Another session with a therapist. But there’s no need for that.

Just stop what you’re doing.

Stop the self-deprecation. Stop the addictive habits. Stop repeating the same old mistakes. Stop “should-ing” all over yourself. Just stop.

When you realize you are on the wrong path, the only way to make any more progress is to stop.

Stopping is the gateway to changing. 

When you stop, you end the process of deterioration and allow yourself to begin the process of healing.

I’ve been guilty of over-complicating my life as well. I’ve been going through physical rehab, working with a personal trainer and a chiropractor, asking a million questions, overthinking how the hundreds of muscles in my body should be working and not making any progress aside from just tiring myself out, losing sleep, and just becoming a very negative, down and dejected person. This lasted for 5 years. I had to stop.

We don’t begin to solve the many problems in our lives by adding more things to our “to-do” list. We begin by stopping, by saying no to habits that do not serve us, even if that means doing absolutely nothing.

Stop. 

Do nothing. But notice that you are still doing something. While it may not seem that way, it is a step toward changing your life for the better. When you stop what you’re doing, you are ending negative habits, ending negative cycles, and instead creating a resting space for your life.

Oftentimes we don’t know what got us here. We’re no longer sure what will satisfy us or what we are looking for. So we think by increasing the number of unnecessary possessions, burying ourselves both physically and mentally in more things will help, but most of the time these extra things just serve to throw us into further disarray. The best way to find out what we really need sometimes is to get rid of what we don’t. 

Start by stopping.

Action Step: 

Do an inventory check of your life and the things you’ve been doing, thinking about, or stressing over. Then ask yourself, “Does this contribute to my overall happiness? Or would I be better off by stopping what I’m doing?” Start throwing things out like you would an old sweater that is way past its time.

by Jason Lam

ON BUILDING OUT YOUR COMFORT ZONE

Today was a special day.

I sang for the very first time in front of an audience.

That’s right; I sang a song, all by myself. 

I’ve been taking voice lessons. It’s something I’ve wanted to do since my teenage years but never got around to because I was scared. I always managed to find an excuse not to go through with it. I noticed fear and staying in your comfort zone makes you really good at that. I also noticed that time doesn’t make your desires go away; it only makes your desires grow stronger, so much to the point where the joy of staying in your comfort zone is no longer worth the pain of not following through. In my case, it took 10 years to get out of my comfort zone and do what I’ve always wanted to do.

“Just because it feels comfortable, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for you.”

On the same note, just because something is uncomfortable, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad for you.

This bit of knowledge comes from my voice coach, Ellen Robinson, who, despite my limited experience as a singer, I believe is one of the best voice teachers out there. Singing often requires that we reach parts of our voice that may feel a bit uncomfortable. She demonstrated how our normal speaking voice requires rather minimal effort to make a sound and how the ease of regular speaking only covers a limited range of notes. When we sing, we must force ourselves outside of the narrow range we have grown accustomed to and go beyond our comfort zone. It is only by doing so that we can truly tap into the potentials of our voice.

Ellen likens getting out of your comfort zone to building an attic. 

First, you have to make the decision to get up there. And when you’ve done so, start by dusting everything out. Then you need to give the walls a fresh coat of paint and start moving in some furniture. Who knows, maybe you can even put up some window curtains and lay out a few pictures. You’re venturing into foreign territory so it may feel a bit intimidating but that’s why you need to build it out slowly. Then you need to hang out there. 

When you’re getting out of your comfort zone, you’re essentially creating a new space for yourself. It’s going to feel a bit alien the first couple of times. It requires getting over your fears and inhibitions. On a more tactile note, it is a process, often a very slow process. That’s why you need to keep going up there, going through the necessary steps, and work through your discomforts. Remind yourself that just a tiny bit of progress is still progress. You’ll be surprised to find that eventually, you will have created a new space for yourself in a place you never imagined possible. In fact, you might quite enjoy being up there.

How I built my attic:

I came in on the first day only planning to sit in and observe because I was afraid to commit. Little did I know, I ended up participating, loved it so much, and officially enrolled in the class. Each class started by warming up our voices through a series exercises. Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So. Then came the sheet music. Key signatures. Vocal ranges. More music. And suddenly we’re talking about major and minor thirds, key changes, codas, al codas, triplets, and harmonies. This happened for one hour a week. Before I knew it, there I was singing a solo for the first time in front of a real audience, instead of doing it drunk at a karaoke bar. I was actually singing. This was what building my attic was like. Just one hour a week. Imagine what you could do in an entire lifetime.

I sang “How Little We Know” by Frank Sinatra.

Here is my rendition with all its imperfections:

I share this story with you today because I feel that life provides us with a lot of space to really build something beautiful and magnificent. This space comes in the form of time, and if you are staying in your comfort zone out of fear, then I would like to remind you that you don’t have time to waste. Time passes, and you will get older whether you like it or not. You cannot control that, but whether or not you set out to get what you came here for is up to you.

How far will you reach outside your comfort zone? How many extra rooms and attics will you build inside your home? What will you do with these seconds of opportunities that life provides you every day? 

Remind yourself that just because something feels good, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for you. In order to reach our best selves, we must be willing to trust the process and do things that absolutely terrify us from time to time. Don’t just get out of your comfort zone -- build out your comfort zone. 

by Jason Lam