The blog

The Prescott Circus Theater…man i love these guys

interview with Jason Eskenazi, the “best photographer you’ve never heard of”

“…Do you think you can come to understand someone through photographs?”

“…I can come to understand myself. I’m just using the people. I’m seeing what they mean to me and using them and their situations to better understand my life.” —Jason Eskenazi

his photos here

The interview in full

go buy his book

ok i know i havent posted in awhile, and i dont want to keep all of my fans waiting…so here we go

i have been put on this beat covering a triple murder homicide on thanksgiving day 2006. its two sides of a family, connected through marriage. they are all immigrants from Eritrea. pretty much one of the sides killed a brother on the other side but they claimed he dided of natural causes. the other side thought their family was killed because he was gay, so they do some snooping…fast forward on thanksgiving day 2006, three people are killed in an apartment. prior to all of this, i had shot some stuff at the church that these guys frequent (the victims side) so they know me pretty well. the trial has been going on for months, and the verdict should come out anytime soon, of which im on call for in case that it does.

the thing is the courtroom is totally split between the two sides of the family. after a session in the court is done, the familes are let out into the lobby one by one since a few fights already broke out. its super tense. the victims side of the family loves me, they gave me an authentic eritrean lunch one day, they are friendly and always up for photographs. the other side, the attackers side, they hate me. they refuse to look at me, yell when i take pictures and are generally hostile to when i take photographs. i’ve got the law on my side cause the courtroom lobby is classified as a public area, so i can do what i want, but it ain’t easy.

its all been pretty fun, something new to shoot. the courtroom is really boring, but outside is exciting.

i had an assignment earlier today to take photographs of drug dealers hanging outside of a liquor store in west oakland. naturally, stuff like this really excites me. on a surface level, going into the unknown that gets me going…on a deeper level its about putting myself in a situation where i normally wouldn’t put myself in, to see “the other side.”

personally speaking, i felt like my editors threw me under the bus on this one…our contact wasn’t there, no one knew i was coming and i was met with general hostility but still had to come up with photographs in a location where taking pictures of people is, as said by the liquor store guy “met with violence.” i had decided to snipe a few photos of the place before I went in and as i was taking photos in my car, i was instantly spotted by the liquor store owner. he came out, pointed straight at me, told all the drug deals on the block to scatter, and walked back inside. already caught and really very nervous, i decided to walk into the store and chop it up with the guy, telling him who i was and what i was doing. i made friends with him and went back to shooting, this time on the street… but had to worry about giving him a bad rep since a news guy was talking to him, i also had to worry about talking to too many people since no one wants a photographer around, and i also had to worry about my own safety since im packing major $$$ camera wise. in the 20min i was on the street, i saw 4 drug deals…im still at the point where i can count how many drug deals ive seen on my fingers, but its something thats soo default to life in parts of our cities, that im amazed as to how we turn our eyes away from it so much. 4 in 20 minutes! its easy to see the good in the world, but boy we really got to go and see the bad too, first hand…with our own eyes and learn about it. know whats really going on, and then either form opinions or do something about it.

i am a huge advocate of looking at both sides of any story…especially when that story is your reality.

Had an assignment to take photos at the Annual Oakland Police memorial for the officers killed in the line of duty. It was all really sad just because 51 cops have died since its inception. In 2009, 4 officers were killed in the same day, two execution style. In 1999, one officer was shot and killed by a sniper (pictures of his son and daughter are below), the other was shot as well, but lived because his hand cuff case protected the bullet from penetrating too far. talk about luck.

as i was walking around and wanted shots of some of the police, so i walked up to the nearest two and was like, “hey can i take your photo” “yeah sure” “great thanks…and whats your name??” “Well, im Chief of Police Anthony Batts and im Assistant Chief of Police Howard Jordan.” “oops, i shoulda known that huh” “yup :)” haha. i did that to some hotshot lawyer too, expect he was “stunned that i didnt know who he was.”