Who is the practitioner (what is their name?) and when were they practicing?
Jonpaul Douglass (jonpauldouglass on Instagram) is a photographer and director from Los Angeles. He has been practising for twelve years and likes to experiment with his style. In Tammi Heneveld’s interview with Douglass for The Great Discontent, Douglass states that he only started using Instagram in 2013, which was when he moved to LA with his wife (Heneveld 2016).
What is the title of the photo or video you have chosen to analyse (can you provide a link?)
The image is captioned ‘An unexpected journey’, with his series hashtag #pizzainthewild where he takes images of pizzas in unlikely places.
With the photo or video you are examining when was it produced (date)?
The image was published to Instagram on the 13th of January, 2017.
How was the photo or video authored?
While he isn’t a mobile photographer, Douglass also doesn’t disclose what kind of camera that he uses, but he has said that he uses Lightroom to edit his images to bring out more vibrancy to it, and that post-production editing is a big part of his process. As he is an experimental photographer, I assume he plays around with the composition and vibrancy of his images to capture an audience’s attention.
In Daniel Palmer’s book, ‘Mobile Media Photography’, Palmer (2014, p. 253) states that while ‘photography can and does continue to perform its traditional role as a memory aide … it clearly … does much more.’ To relate this to Douglass’s practice, he has said that he would ‘like people to look at [his] work and think, “This guy was passionate about making things and he never stopped.” Maybe people will look at it and be inspired or influenced in some way’ (Heneveld 2016, final para.). Douglass intends his practice of photography to do more than serve as a “memory aide”—he wishes to inspire people with his own passion.
How was the photo or video published?
He published this image to Instagram, using the hashtag that he created for this specific series of images. While Douglass is known for his Pizza in the Wild series, he has said that he prefers to be identified for more than his work in this series, as claims there is more to his work than pizza (Heneveld 2016). His images are also available on his website, but a comparison between his Instagram account and his website shows that his Instagram is updated more frequently. I assume this allows for a greater degree of interaction and exposure to his works, as Instagram affords commenting and liking images, whereas the website serves as a digital portfolio.
How was the photo or video distributed?
This photo is distributed online on his Instagram account and his website. He uses the hashtag in the caption of the Instagram upload as this image is part of the ‘Pizza in the Wild’ series, and because he is the creator of this eccentric series.
References
Douglass, J 2018, Beyond thrilled to be asked by @Lightroom to show a…, Instagram, 20 July, viewed 9 September 2018, <https://www.instagram.com/p/Blaty5bhWuc/>
Heneveld, T 2016, Jonpaul Douglass, The Great Discontent (TGD), blog post, 26 July, viewed 9 September 2018, <https://thegreatdiscontent.com/interview/jonpaul-douglass>
Palmer, D 2014, ‘Mobile Media Photography’, in G Goggin & L Hjorth (eds), The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media, Routledge, NY, pp. 249-255.