Meet Brandon Jackson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Jackson.

Hi Brandon, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
I got my start in photography back in high school, where I took a photography class. This lead to my taking a job after school at one of the local camera shops, Dury’s. During this time, I learned a lot about photographic equipment, and this fed what became a passion for photography. After high school, I went to work full time in camera shops both at Dury’s and Wolf Camera over several years. At 25 years old, in 1995, I opened a photo lab and photography studio in Brentwood with a friend from Wolf Camera and Dury’s.

We were open for two years until a Wolf Camera opened in our shopping center. It took them only about three months to carve enough of our business away to the point where we had to close. This was both disappointing and relief as while I hated to see the business go away, I was also happy to get time again for things I wanted to do. At this point I stopped my photography work as I was pretty burned out from taking any type of photography work that walked in the door. I was fortunate enough to slide right into a new job just days after the shop closed, thanks to a connection at a nearby medical lab. In this job, I was handling PC/Network support and spent the next three years doing this both here in Nashville and spent six months in Austin, TX at a new “dot-com”. I ended up coming back to Nashville in 1999 and started working in IT support as a contractor for HCA Healthcare. Eventually, I assumed a full-time role with HCA, with this past August 28th (2021) being my 20th year. Having a steady full-time job, I picked up some camera gear and started shooting again. First on film, but after a couple of years, I stepped into digital cameras and it remained a hobby for many years.

I had started working in Adobe Photoshop back in 2001 as part of my work at HCA, and this had me well-grounded in digital editing once I started shooting with digital cameras. Since that time, I have been certified as an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop, and my photography work continued to grow from occasional portraits and weddings to equestrian shows and event photography. In 2014, I started focusing on headshots and refined my setup and process into what it is today. Over the past three years, I’ve made a point to branch out into portrait, lifestyle, and other types of work. I am now pleased to have several business clients for which I shoot headshots as well as many local models with which I get to collaborate.

I believe that education is the most important investment a photographer can make in themselves, and I just recently returned from a photographic workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Back in 2017, I started offering my own workshop on headshot photography and now offer a studio lighting workshop and a class on photographing flat artwork for artists.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Some of my challenges were mentioned in my lengthy overview, but specifically, my first challenge was leaving the camera industry. When I did, it became costly to shoot a lot. Film and processing is expensive, so it limited the amount I could shoot.

Digital photography helped remove the cost barrier, so I could practice and improve my skills.

Another challenge was time, as working full time during the week limited the time I could shoot. Having been with my employer for so long now affords me a lot of paid time off, so I now have some flexibility to shoot during the week.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I could say that I specialize and I’m most recognized for headshots and portraits, but I feel like a better way to put it is that I specialize in photographing people. My earliest work was portraits and headshots, and that will always be where I feel most at home. That said, I also enjoy shooting sports such as basketball, equestrian events, and motorcycle racing. To me, it is still “people” photography, but in these cases, the subjects are in motion rather than a “posed” situation.

The work I’m most proud of in recent years is my Classic Hollywood-style portraits. These are images shot with the lighting style and image processing that recalls classic portraits of entertainers from the first half of the twentieth century. A friend and fellow photographer for whom I have a lot of respect once commented that my images in this style had a very “George Hurrell” quality, and this was the highest praise I felt I could ask for, and then some.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
That’s a good question. The first thing that comes to mind is when I was five or six, and my family still lived in Brooklyn, NY. I remember it was winter, and the sidewalks were snowy and icy. My parents were pulling me around the block on a cookie sheet turned “sled.” It must have seemed like a lot of fun to me at the time.

Pricing:

• Individual Headshot sessions $195

Contact Info:

• Email: brandon@brandonjacksonphoto.com
• Website: www.brandonjacksonphoto.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brandonjacksonphoto/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandonjacksonphoto/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/brandonjxnphoto
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/JacksonPhotoworks

Image Credits
Roger Crice, Carmen Bellos, and Brandon Jackson.