We were lucky to catch up with Jackson Orta recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jackson, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

Well, to be honest, it started with Youtube. I spent…oh I don’t even know how many hours watching Youtube videos on everything I wanted to know about photography and that amount grew to even more as I went into editing. So, I really have to owe it to that (my knowledge). However, I have to also note college has been a big benefactor to my work as well. I am a full-time student and full-time creator (don’t ask me how that math checks out). I of course, looking back on it, see all the things I did wrong. I think when you enter an industry that you care greatly about you really want to impress and make your mark, you don’t want to look like you don’t know what you’re doing. I was definitely a victim of that. In the very very early beginnings of learning my field I wanted to figure out everything myself, but there weren’t videos on everything. Some things even you just can’t teach. You have to go out and figure them for yourself, or just talk to other people. I think a lot of technical practice in art at its core is imitation, so I did a lot of that trying to figure out, you know, how they shoot those images that you see in magazines or in Elle or Vogue. There’s absolutely no shame in doing that though as long as you work to find a departure point from that and start creating for yourself. I wish I had just asked questions and embraced the fact that I was new to this whole big world and industry instead of being afraid of looking weak or unexperienced, I was 16 at the time though, so I think it’s pretty common to put yourself in that position in that age.

I think, and still do, that the most essential skills that you can have when it comes to really any visual art is understanding the base of how that art works. Photography is the study of light right? Well, learn light. See light. We do it every day. I found myself coming into that more and really just noticing things you wouldn’t necessarily. I began deciding where I was going to shoot a specific day by looking at shadows of cars on the road while I was driving to my session. Seeing what way the light was going and how harsh it was. I think that’s when I started coming into my own when it came to confidence in what I did, because being self-taught is scary. You really only rely on yourself and if you’re wrong or misunderstand something you won’t necessarily be aware of it.
My biggest obstacles I would say was that social component and myself. I never really have been and still wouldn’t consider myself to be any sort of an extrovert or overly social person. I think that’s complicated when you decide you want to photograph people because I don’t think you can create a good photo with someone unless you can level with and be comfortable with them. Over the years that has definitely gotten better but it kept me from taking advantage of certain opportunities sooner. Another extension of that I think would be I’ve never really viewed myself as a creative or an artistic person even though, past photography, I’ve been involved in the visual arts all of my life. I still to this day would never call myself an artist just because of what I know and understand about art…I just hold that title in such a high regard; while I do agree that what I do takes skill and artistic qualities I would never want to compare myself to someone like Richard Avedon, or Van Gogh because I just feel like I’m either not there yet or it’s just not the way I’m oriented. Things like that caused me to stop creating or trying to get better at photography because I didn’t feel there is a point. but there always is.

Jackson, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Gosh, I’ll try to be concise. Well first of all, hey! thank you for reading. My name is Jackson (Jack) Orta, and I am a creative director and editorial photographer based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am 21 years old and a Senior in college in Eau Claire studying for a BFA in Photography. My primary work focus is on model development and commercial work, I love aesthetically pleasing photographs and my favorite subject is, evidently, people. A lot of my work, as I said centers around development. That can mean anything from brands, to entrepreneurs, to models, and more. I got into this area because ever since I was younger, I had an interest in portraiture. I used to draw and paint prolifically. In high school I moved towards photography actually because of tumblr and bought my first DSLR when I was 16. I’ve always loved people as a subject and the classical arts, and I always wanted a camera to play around with as a kid so that very easily evolved into this. Continuing with the development concept; the services I usually provide to my clients is the visual content component with that. Updates to portfolios as well as product work for newer or fledgling companies and creatives is my main source of work but I also offer creative direction and production abilities from a couple different aspects. I’m moving slowly into teaching as well because that’s my end goal with my terminal degree.

I think my personality is a big contributor to what sets me apart. I have extensive classical knowledge of the whole art making process, and for my age, an overwhelming amount of experience in applying it. I came from a drawing background and discipline style that really focused on dynamisms in composition which I think gives me a different bit of spin on how I shoot and the fact that I’ve artistically been studying the human body for years also gives me an edge, I think. I’m definitely proud of the things I’ve been able to accomplish at my age though. I don’t know too many 16-year-old students who were focused on marketing strategies and client relationship facts as much as I was through high school and entering college. I’m also so proud of the relationships I’ve been able to create and nurture throughout my experience too; I mean no one really tells you how diverse the backgrounds are of the people you meet through this stuff but it’s simply wonderful.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Honestly, this point feels beaten to death from how much I see it but invest in the quality of art that you’re expecting. This 100 percent relies on both sides of the transactional coin; creative, and consumer. Everywhere in the freelancing biz you see how many people are looking for the cheapest option (especially in the wedding industry, which makes the least sense to me). Art is a luxury, and I think we as a society forget that. Looking at the past development in photography as a consumable product, (sorry it’s the art teacher in me that’s been imbued in me from my lovely photo history professor Jyl Kelley) people would spend a month’s salary for one daguerreotype when photographs were really starting to get out there. Now, that’s not me saying that’s necessarily what people should do or how photographers should immediately price themselves, but I think it’s an important point of reference. People understood the value of photographs and the complex process that goes into them, but I don’t think phones should devalue that. There’s a reason why the iPhone 14 or the newest point-and-shoot camera touting people haven’t destroyed the photography industry, because it’s an art. It’s a practice of work that takes years of skill and on occasion tens of thousands of dollars to supplement. I think that it’s something to keep in mind, and especially remember we don’t just shoot and go home. There’s so much behind the scenes that’s continued to exist after those daguerreotypes and that’s where those “overpriced” factors come in.

On the other side, there’s the creative. Now we all have been entering our crafts and selling our works and services at some point as working creatives. I’ll be the first to say I have done a 2-hour shoot for $30 bucks before and delivered over 300 photos. I think that’s crazy now, and most people who are in this line of work I think would agree. Sure, I got a ton of people at that rate, but there’s a reason for that. It’s because I was SO green to what I do. I can’t walk into a thing I’ve never done before and start charging the same as the professionals and expect clients. Yet, my biggest mistake with that is, at the time, I was okay with that. I was getting paid to take some photos, what else mattered? I didn’t want to lose money on something I was barely making any with. That’s where the problem is though. I expected to get there, but I didn’t take any steps past that that caused me any losses. Where I am now, I realize that’s just business sometimes. You need to spend to improve or to make more profit sometimes. I wasn’t investing in resources and didn’t want to, but I didn’t like my work. The concept of that $10 dollar a month subscription to photoshop was my worst enemy for the longest time. My version of investing in myself to improve came with college funny enough, but it was a detriment of whether or not I would grow. If I didn’t push myself by doing that then I don’t think I ever would have.

So, my long-winded message is don’t try to take shortcuts, because save for the 1% of us who are prodigious masters (who I am jealous of haha), they will be apparent in your work as well as the work you will receive from a client standpoint. Remember the work that goes into making whatever it is you make or doing whatever you do; also remember the amount of sacrifice you have to make in order to see progress. No pain, no gain. That works for both the consumer and the creative.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I think there are definitely more things that impacted my process of creating versus my sort of business-oriented self, but I can definitely think of a few. I think definitely taking just courses about economics, understanding a market and how product and people interact has been incredibly enlightening. I would recommend pursuing basic knowledge to some degree in business if you’re planning on creating one, because you just don’t know how much there is out there until you run into trouble or seek that knowledge. I think a big number of resources were other people and just getting invested in reading article for things like how I should file my taxes different from a job that has an automated withholding. I even credit my sister who was an economic extraordinaire for as long as I can remember, who I’ve had a few conversations about some business stuff that have encouraged me to like, figure myself out so to speak. Even just having friends and people in different business sectors at different ages has been a wonderful turn of luck for me because I can take stuff away and learn about self-contracting business resources. Gosh I feel so bad I can’t think of any to share specifically, but I promise it has made a big difference of how I handle myself professionally.

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