Q: How did you get into photography?

A: Photography has always been a part of my life in some way or another. In fact in hindsight, it seems clear that I was heading towards a career in photography, but back when I was a biochemistry major in undergrad, it didn’t seem so obvious and it took a while to work out.

In highschool, some of my friends were taking photography classes and I caught the photo bug from them. Most of the photos that I took were portraits of the people around me (which is still the majority of the photos that I take.) But even before then there were signs, such as the baby pictures of me chowing down on a box of Kodak Tri-X film, or playing with my father’s tripod.

In my freshman year of college, I talked my way into a photo 2 class, and organized funding for the unused darkroom in my dormitory. The next summer, I interned for photographer Darrow Montgomery in D.C. But even then I still thought that photography would be just a hobby.

That all began to change my sophomore year, when I joined the photo staff of The Daily Pennsylvanian. The DP Photo department quickly took over my life. I was amazed by the way in which the photo assignments expanded my horizons. The camera became an excuse to explore so many other worlds; I began to discover many other facets of Penn and Philadelphia that I never would have otherwise encountered. I still didn’t know that much photography technique, but I was certainly excited about it.

Then Suzanna Urminska, one of my photo editors, talked me into joining her in taking a photojournalism class taught by David Wells. We ended up being the only two students in the class. David taught me a great deal about documentary photography, and filled in many of the gaps in my knowledge of basic photography technique. He also planted the crazy notion in my head that photography might be something that I could do for a living.

I kept on putting every ounce of my time and effort into working for the DP (this had unfortunate repercussions on my academic career, but so it goes…) I served as photo editor of The Summer Pennsylvanian, then as Senior Photo Editor of the 116th Editorial Board of the DP. I also worked as a lab tech in the photo department of The Philadelphia Inquirer, where I learned a great deal from their staff. Interning with Scott Nibauer and Peter Lien taught me about studio work and the corporate/advertising photography world. As I built my skills, freelance work started coming my way by word of mouth.

In the summer of 2002, my parents gave me a plane ticket as a graduation present. This, plus some funding from a Stouffer College House Research Fellowship allowed me to spend a month photographing in Mongolia. This was the first time that I had ever spent a solid chunk of time doing nothing but photography, and it was a great experience. It was also a frustrating one, as I didn’t have a good enough reason for going there other that shooting for myself. Being a photo-tourist isn’t very fulfilling; I would much rather be photographing for other people than just for myself. That’s more the direction that I’ve tried to take since then.

I wasn’t ready to jump straight into fulltime freelance work when I graduated, so I stayed on as a teaching assistant and juggled other assorted part time jobs as I began to establish myself. This was a great transition time, and I’ve been fulltime freelance since May 03. Since then, I’ve had some great opportunities to travel, meet some amazing people, and photograph a great deal. You’ll find some of those images on this site, and we’ll see what the future has to bring…

Q: Can I buy prints of your images?

A: Yes! I’ve finally set up an automated printing service via PhotoShelter, which makes it really easy for you to buy prints and have them shipped straight to you. Every print that you buy helps support my work, and in turn, the other artists and activists that I support with my photography. If you don’t see the particular image that you’re looking for in the selection available for prints, just ask. To head over to the PhotoShelter archive and buy prints, click here.

I also make limited edition signed and framed prints available by special request, but those are a little bit more expensive.

Q: What kind of camera do you use?

A: I primarily use Nikon digital SLRs, although I’m also a big fan of Canon’s point and shoot Elph series.

However, it’s important to remember that in photography, it’s very easy to obsess over equipment and technical details, but in the end it’s not the camera that takes the pictures, it’s you. The word “camera” simply means “room” – as in Camera Obscura – dark room – and it’s far more important to know where to stand and when to push the button, and to pay attention to your subject, lighting and compositional elements, than to have more bells and whistles on your camera.

I’ve exhibited prints from 4megapixel files alongside prints from 12megapixel files, and no one’s cared. Furthermore, if you think that you need a big fancy camera to make good images, just take a look at the work of Magnum photographer Alex Majoli who documents conflict zones with point and shoot cameras.

That being said, I’m a big fan of Nikon’s gear, and find that their SLRs are extremely intuitive, and have become an extension of my brain/eye when shooting> but that would probably be the case if I’d spent half a million frames shooting with any other brand of camera as well.. If you’re looking for more information on digital cameras, www.dpreview.com is a good place to start. Then Rob Galbraith’s site is a good next stop. If you’re interested in lighting techniques, David Hobby’s Strobist is a great blog to check out.

Q: Do you pose or digitally manipulate your images?

A: That sometimes becomes a tricky question, but in general the answer is a clear “no” – I was trained in the the ethics of photojournalism, and I don’t pose images to seem candid, but rather shoot them on the fly. However, if I’m shooting a portrait session with someone, then clearly those images are posed. Same things with images that are created as promotional images for a dance company or some such. If you have any question about any image on this site, just ask. As to “photoshopping” – I use the computer to adjust brightness, color and contrast if necessary, but don’t do anything that couldn’t be done in the darkroom. The simple fact is that once you start thinking about light and composition, it’s way easier to just take a good picture in the first place, rather than taking a mediocre one and trying to cover it up via photoshop. Again, if you have any question about how any image on this site was created, just ask.

Q: Can I use your image on my website?

A: Please check in with me about this. My photographs are intellectual property protected by copyright laws, and they’re really all that I have, so I’d appreciate your respect in that matter. I’m often flexible about licensing, but it’s important that you ask permission.

If the image is of you, and it bears my “© Jacques-Jean Tiziou / www.jjtiziou.net” watermark, and you want to post it in a personal profile on a social networking site or some such, that’s ok. You can even join the “JJ Tiziou took my Facebook picture” group. (Thanks Meghan- you’re ridiculous!) But please consider†supporting the work. But if you’re using it to promote yourself or your services, then you should ask.

It’s also important to me that wherever you repost my images, you include a credit linking back to this site. That helps me get the work that helps fund my personal projects. Thanks!

Q: Will you shoot my wedding? Corporate event? Headshots or Family portraits?

A: I love photographing celebrations, but I’ve probably already done more than my share of photographing large events, and I’m now trying to put more emphasis on longer term projects and working with smaller groups of people. I’ll still do a few special events here and there, but it’s incredibly emotionally intense to catapult into the lives of another hundred people with a camera, and to fall in love with another hundred beautiful faces that I’ll never quite forget in the course of a day. So I’m having to charge a good bit more for these things and do fewer of them. Individual portrait sessions are a lot easier.

Q: Isn’t it great that with digital cameras now you can just click click click and get great pictures without having to stop and think about it?

A: I’m probably one of the more prolific photographers out there, and it’s true that I’ve been known to take several thousand photos in a day. But it saddens me a bit to realize that people see me moving fast and assume that I’m just pointing and shooting, not really thinking about technical issues, and relying on probability to get good images.

It’s true that digital allows for more shooting- but every single one of those shots is taken in manual mode, and each one involves a split second calculation optimizing about twenty or so variables. I may look like I’m just going click click click as I’m shooting spontaneously, but all the time there are choices being made about subjects, potential backgrounds, lighting ratios, color contrasts, angles of view, shutter speeds and motion, apertures and depth of field, whether to toggle into spot metering or use matrix metering, how the shape created between my subject’s head and an object in the background changes with every millimeter shift of my position and theirs in three dimensions, and where that person in the background is going to move to, because they’re not even really visible in the picture, but I’m trying to hide behind their silhouette to block out a light source in the background that would otherwise be distracting. As a friend who’s learning photography recently said: “Who thought it would be so much work to get interesting shots..”†

So, my advice to people wanting to improve their photography: By all means, take advantage of the freedom to photograph prolifically that digital affords. But shoot in manual mode, try to learn from every frame, and remember that you’re responsible for every single element that is in (or kept out of) the picture… it’s more than just point and shoot. :)