Reel and Artist Statement

Lauren Jacobs - DP Reel 2012 from Lauren Jacobs on Vimeo.

I am obsessed with the act of documenting. I didn’t truly realize just how much it means to me until very recently. I think this is because the obsession has always been there, underlying most everything I do. I take hundreds of pictures. I journal via emails to my best friend without even meaning to. I let the camera roll on my little brother’s first everything long after whatever it was he was doing was done. Recently however, my acts of documenting have become much more conscious. Purposeful efforts made for the sake of not losing something. As of late, my work of documenting has led me to capture the processes and products of other artists. Specifically, artists whose pieces are fleeting without such documentation. A dancer performing to an audience for one night only. A spraypainted tribute to an illegal and often removed form of art. The sly glances of a painter who mid-brushstroke checks to see if her work measures up to her neighbor during class. It is important to me to capture the process of creation through the medium of video because to me, watching these images can give birth to inspiration in an infinite number of ways. By observing how creators create, my own mind is opened to new worlds of potential. I can see thing in the way they make art that will cause me to think about the way that I myself do. Perhaps my subconscious has led me to put myself in positions to have these opportunities to record artists without really even realizing that I’ve been doing so, through taking certain internships and enrolling in certain classes, but once I’m there, something clicks and I know exactly how and why I want to shoot. I want to record subjects by showing how they interact with their medium and also how they interact with others who observe them. I want to show their thought process and preparation. I want for the execution of their art to read visually as the release of energy it is. I want to do this because of course it looks fantastic. Because it can inspire. And because it should not be lost.