This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Williams chapter.

Name: John Okemah

Hometown: Seattle, WA

Major: Political Economy and Art History

We’ve seen your photography on multiple platforms. How did your interest in photography begin?

My fine motor skills hardly improved after second grade, so painting and drawing were never really an option for me. Both my dad and grandfather loved photography in their free time. My grandfather shot 35 mm on an old Yashica Lynx 14 and my dad made the transition into digital. On hikes and camping trips, my dad loved to shoot whenever he could so I really just picked it up from him. I actually didn’t have my own camera until I was 18, when my dad gave me his Nikon D7000 when I left for Williams.

Could you tell us about photography inspires you?

Can’t really avoid sounding cliché here. It’s all about the shooting process that makes it fun for me rather than relishing the finished product. Going through my shots for hours behind my dimly lit laptop screen is considerably less enjoyable than getting out for the actual shots.

It’s fun looking through my older shots and recalling the conditions I was under with each particular shot. Ironically, some of my best shots (pictured below) were taken when I was most miserable. One of my favorite shots was in a market in Istanbul. I was looking for a restaurant, but Google maps was like, “nah”. I ended up in a labyrinth of market stalls selling everything from maternity gowns to brass knuckles. Each time I asked for directions, someone would point me in the direction I had just come from. Fascinating. I snapped some shots and went back to my room on an empty stomach. After I unloaded my SD that week, I was actually pretty surprised to have a decently framed shot.

How do you choose subjects to focus on?

I have pretty poor methodology when it comes to subject selection. I tend to just set aside time, from an hour to all day, just to take my camera out and walk around. I’m more drawn to landscapes and cityscapes as opposed to street photography. I’m a large person, and can’t just discreetly get up in peoples faces on the street, so maybe I’m just genetically inclined to taking landscapes and cityscapes.

To some extent, I still haven’t gotten over some of the voyeuristic tendencies of shooting in cities. One of my favorite shots this past summer (pictured below) in Tokyo was a woman staring out the observation window of the famous Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. I didn’t even know her and she ended up being in one of my best shots, so it was odd to me that she will never even know I took that photo.

Speaking of Japan, what were you there for? Did this trip influence your work at all?

I was in Japan working under the Wilmers Fellowship on a project titled “Visually Documenting the Architectural Evolution of Tokyo”. It was pretty sweet. I was taking pictures of buildings for most of the day. My trip to Tokyo was the first time I traveled specifically for photography. It influenced me in the sense that I was able to devote all my time to fine-tune my technical skills.

My trip to Tokyo was also the first time working on a focused thematic project. It really opened up new possibilities for future projects. Just last week I finished planning my next project, which is titled “Rise, Ruin, and Reinvention:  The Untold Narratives of 5 Western New England Communities”. In January I’ll be working under Professor Jim Mahon of the Political Science department researching the turbulent economic histories of five towns in the area, then photographing each community. The end product will look something like a bootleg National Geographic article.

Do you have a vision for how photography will fit into your postgrad life?

Even when I’m working full time next year, I’m sure my schedule will be flexible enough to fit in time to shoot. I bring my camera with my wherever I go, so I’m not worried about losing my engagement. I’m always looking if local coffee shops and galleries are willing to put some of my work up, so if anything I only regret that I’ll have less opportunities to work under a professor and get feedback from other students.

What advice would you give people who’ve never picked up a camera before?

Funny thing is that few people nowadays have never picked up a camera before. Decent digital cameras are unbelievable cheap and few phones aren’t equipped with a 10+ megapixel camera. With the extreme saturation of images on social media, I feel people get too serious with what people consider good or not. I think the best images remove you from that near-comatose state scrolling behind a screen and make you feel something, even in the slightest– whether they make you recoil, chuckle, or smirk. Even when I’m not selecting images for my site, I like to keep it loose with my instagram account. I’ve got photos on there ranging from expansive landscapes to smashed Cliff bars. So if you like taking photos, just stick with it and keep it loose. Your perspective and technical abilities invariably change over time. There’s always room in your hard drive for a black and white still life right next to the saved Snapchat of your roommate doing a keg stand.

John Okemah ’16

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