Interview Babette de Jong
Photography for me basically is a way to quiet the restless beast called Urgency.
Name: Babette de Jong
Hometown: Zaandam, The Netherlands
Style of photography: Do I have one? I think I don’t really have a style. Or maybe I do… Let’s say my style is ‘diverse’.
Type of camera(s): Nikon D70s, Praktica B200, Some disposables
Website: Flickr, www.babettedejong.daportfolio.com
What gives you inspiration?
I am not certain. Inspiration is an unconscious thing that overcomes me out of the blue. It can come from something I feel or something I see. It never comes from deep thought. It never comes from planning and creating an idea for a photograph.
It starts with an urgency to create an experience in others similar to what I experience when something excites me or moves me. Mostly the driving experience behind my photography are feelings of melancholy and agony. I see them everywhere silently being carried around by people and moments of time. Somehow that fascinates me and I want to let other people feel the same kind of fascination. I want others to feel exactly what I feel. Not for people to understand me but for people to have the same experience. I want to open people there eyes to hidden and silent things. Just like every new scene I encounter opens my eyes a little more to the world and it’s hidden things. When all this doesn’t drive my photography my ‘inspiration’ comes from fun, exploring and experimenting. I try new things and ways of photography just for the fun of it. And sometimes – most of the time – something good comes out of it.So maybe you can say that everything inspires me. Because anything has the potential to fascinate me in a crazy way and thus lead to ‘inspiration’.
What are your influences?
Other people’s work and all the things you can see in the world. The work of others and new styles always open my eyes to different styles of photography. I can see beauty in (almost) every style of photography. Greedy as I am I want to try them all.
Although I am mostly inspired and influenced by emotions of agony and melancholy it sometimes happens that that is not the case. When that happens I am driven by fun and wanting to explore and experiment. Then more than ever are the different styles I encounter the driving force behind my photography. I think you can see that in my photographs.
Why did you choose these photos?
Because I like drama, humans, melancholy, agony, light, nature, anonymity. And because I can’t choose so I randomly picked these photos out of the photos which I think are my best and represent me.
What does photography mean to you?
I have an urgency. An urgency to infect other people with my fascination for silent melancholy and agony. I need to let people experience what I experience. Until now the best way to accomplish that is to photograph moments of time which according to me showcase the experience I have at a particular moment. The problem is I never know when I am going to capture that moment of time. What fascinates me can only be there for half a second and I never know when it’s coming. So I photograph in the hope it sticks onto my lens. I love that you never know what you’re going to capture. A scene may be as obvious as can be but still there can be something you haven’t seen – or that you can’t see – on your photograph. A look or a positioning of the body that showcases something you normally wouldn’t see because it is only there for half a second. When I do know what hidden moment in a scene I am looking for I chase after it with my camera. It’s fun capturing one. So photography for me basically is a way to quiet the restless beast called Urgency.
Photos:
Copyright reserved by Babette de Jong
