An interview with Jonathan Jasberg

Jonathan Jasberg won our World Travelers competition with an idiosyncratic and playful image of French sailors at the Great Pyramids, which judge Steve McCurry praised for its authenticity and storytelling aspect, something challenging to create at famous landmarks. Keen to know more about the image, the story behind it, and more about Jonathan and his approach in general, we put some questions to him. His answers were interesting and honest – just like his images…

Dear Jonathan, congratulations on winning our World Travelers competition. What did you make of judge Steve McCurry’s comments?

Thanks! It is amazing to have this photo selected by Steve McCurry and read his comments. He has been an inspiration of mine long before I even took up photography. I still remember seeing his photographs in National Geographic when I was very young and being inspired to one day see the world. Now that I’ve spent the majority of the last 12 years traveling internationally and photographed in over 60 countries, it is very surreal to have Steve McCurry select this as his winning photograph.

Can you tell us a little more about the image itself, and the story behind it?

This photograph is from October 2020, during the peak of international travel restrictions. Although Egypt was still easy to travel to, there were hardly any international tourists at that time. Places like the Great Pyramids, that are usually very crowded, were almost completely empty day after day. I had been staying in Giza at the time, photographing the pyramids and neighborhoods around them almost daily. On this day, I noticed a large group of uniformed men in the distance and knew something extremely rare was happening. These sailors, who are part of the French Navy’s bagpipe band “Bagad Lann Bihoue” had taken their only outing of the year and were visiting the pyramids and Sphinx. The trip for the sailors was rare, compounded with the fact that due to Covid, nobody else was around in an area that is normally packed, making a shot like this possible.

I understand it’s from your series “Cairo: A Beautiful Thing is Never Perfect”. Can you tell us a bit more about the series and the story you’re telling with it, and of course where the title came from?

The title is borrowed from an ancient Egyptian proverb ‘A Beautiful Thing is Never Perfect’. One day while I was photographing in a neighborhood that normally never sees tourists and older man approached me in a confused state asking why I was taking photos. I was overwhelmed with excitement by the scene I was taking in and the beautiful old architecture in this neighborhood and motioned to it, stating: “just look at it, it’s beautiful!” The older man looked, looked back at me kinda shaking his head and said “beautiful? It’s an old mess” and walked on.

This sort of interaction happened a few times while I was photographing in Cairo, a city that I was developing a deep fascination with the longer I stayed. I realized that often when we live in a place for too long, we tend to miss certain things. Cairo is also a city that most tourists often skip over after a quick trip to the pyramids and a museum or two. The city itself was named ‘Most Beautiful City in The World’ in 1925, and is steeped in ancient history, however most people heavily associate it with the turbulent last 15 years or so since the revolution and don’t explore much.

With these candid photographs that are far from perfect, sometimes messy, grainy, and rushed, I aim to show moments of joy, sadness, quirkiness, and hope. To not only show a glimpse of the complexity of Cairo and the lives of the people that live there, but also include moments that even if we come from a completely different background, we can relate to, smile at, empathize with and appreciate the shared beauty and complexity of life. A beautiful thing is never perfect.

Is there another shot you’re particularly proud of from the series? Why that one?

I like the photo of the girl looking out of her home down at two women fighting, and one of them has her hijab flipped over her face [see above]. It was such a brief and surreal scene to witness, and to be able to capture it with the girl looking down at them with such a relaxed and indifferent gaze made me happy.

Can you tell us a bit more about yourself, and your route into photography?

I had an interest in filmmaking before getting into photography thus my style is heavily influenced by thinking in terms of ‘building a scene’. I’ve practiced many different genres of photography over the last 20 years (travel, event, production) before eventually settling on the style of street photography that I do now. I now travel full-time internationally, going to places that interest me from a photographic and cultural standpoint.

And how would you describe your style and approach?

I shoot fairly slowly and deliberately. I’m tall and stand out as a foreigner in all of the places I go, so it can be difficult to get candid shots, especially since I always shoot with the camera to my eye. I try to inject myself into scenes and simply become ignorable rather than try to be invisible.

You lead street photography workshops around the world in cities such as Oaxaca in Mexico and Kyoto in Japan. Can you tell us a little bit about those and what they entail? What sort of things do you focus on with your participants?

Just before Covid happened, I was offering small workshops in Kyoto and Osaka. I speak Japanese and know Kyoto very well, so these are a great way for foreigners to see areas that are normally very difficult to photograph. I hope to resume those as soon as Japan lifts the travel restrictions that are currently in place. In 2023 I am also looking to offer a workshop during the Lent celebrations that happen in Oaxaca, Mexico, where I have also photographed extensively. These are small group workshops of 5 or less participants, where each day is an intense full day of shooting, followed by reviews and personalized lessons.

Do you have a favorite city you’ve shot in? Why that one? And what about a dream city you haven’t had a chance to visit yet?

Cairo, while extremely intense to photograph in, has been great to me, so I’ll call that #1. I would love to go to Lahore, Pakistan sometime soon and shoot there.

What are you working on right now?

The majority of this year I’ve been shooting the Indian subcontinent with my time split between India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The project is still very much in the early stages, but I have a general idea of a few themes and the direction I would like to go with it.

And finally, is there a single piece of advice you wish you could share with your younger self? Perhaps one you pass onto your workshop participants…

Invest in workshops and work with multiple mentors. I didn’t seek out a workshop until 2014, when I took one with Alex and Rebecca Webb. At the time it seemed like a huge amount of money to spend for just a few days of shooting. It turned out to be one of the best investments I’ve made. I’ve since taken other workshops and each one has been extremely valuable, not only from what I’ve learned from the amazing instructors, but also what I’ve learned and gained from the other participants.