Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonathan South.
Hi Jonathan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
First, this journey has not been solely influenced by myself and I would like to thank everyone who has assisted me throughout the years and regardless of if you are personally mentioned in this article, I really appreciate your contribution.
Now, let’s go through the history of Jonathan South and his photographic journey, which by the way, I can summarize it pretty handily in about 3 sentences, but I don’t think that would be very interesting.
For as long as I can remember I have been doing creative things. In my primary level of education, I was very interested in conga drumming. I used to hit anything I could with my hands to produce a beat to keep myself entertained – I still do. This followed me to my secondary level of education except this time, I did it right! I joined the drumming club and performed with my group to secure several gold medals at the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission Competitions and if you look hard enough you can find our performance on Television Jamaica. You would think I would have become a professional drummer, right? I could have been, but I got swept away and in hindsight, happily so.
Let’s get back on course, I’m still in high school, some of my friends started dabbling in photography and I was in the adjacent field of graphic designing. Seeing the art that they created motivated me to join the photography club, even without a camera, and this is where I met Cevan Coore – remember him, he’s important. I decided to pressure, I mean persuade, my mother to purchase a camera for me and she did! The very first thing I shot was? Yeah, that’s right. FLOWERS – see photo at the end. If you know you know (IYKYK). I still have one of those first photographs framed in my house. Anyway, I did the whole photography, graphic design, and drumming thing for the rest of high school then I went on to university with one surviving talent – photography.
Sometime in the transition from high school to university, I became a part of a media group which acquainted me with one of the photographers I had known of from Instagram, Alexander Wong. We started doing shoots together and we formed a real bond of friendship where we did everything together. We became the street-style fashion photographers of Kingston, Jamaica while shooting model/stylist extraordinaire Kristia Franklin. One of the most iconic shoots we ever did was with the previous Miss Universe Jamaica, Kaci Fennell-Shirley, in the coronation market with picture frames. I absolutely loved that shoot. I continued shooting various things with no real focus and eventually, I started to transition into wedding and corporate photography, which is my current focus but don’t worry, I’ll explain the process to you.
In 2016, I met Darrick Foster, Co-founder of Dacx Productions – a present-day mentor, brother, and friend. We are basically family at this point. I honestly feel like we were destined to meet because we went to the same high school and studied computer-related fields in university. He really took me under his wing and showed me how photography and production on a whole could be monetized. He gave me my first experience of a wedding alongside Alexander, and I immediately fell in love with it. I absolutely love capturing the once in a lifetime moments that occur on a wedding day and I really get immersed in the love of the couple, so much so that at the end of the day I feel like a part of the family. Aside from weddings, Darrick plunged me into the world of corporate jobs which leaned more towards event coverage such as seminars and press events. On one of these jobs, I saw Cevan Coore (remember him?) where he made me aware of an internship opportunity with Stush Marketing; I applied and was fast-tracked through the program with me ultimately becoming a member of the team.
Stush Marketing and specifically Cevan and Carisse Wright, taught me about video production, the marketing world, and the technicalities of photography. Initially, as most photographers are, I was afraid to work with strobes because I had felt they were a bit too technical. Cevan helped me to overcome this and explained every question I asked without a stroke of judgment and it’s a relationship I have never forgotten the value of. I spent the next few years freelancing with Dacx and Stush and honing my craft to a level where I could go on production sets and feel confident in my ability to execute. In 2020 when the pandemic struck, Stush marketing and I parted ways amicably and my company was born.
Today, I’m the Founder of my own company, Jonsouthy Creative Services Limited, and a Senior Member and Manager of Dacx Productions. As I said in the beginning, I am a product of all those around me and how they’ve influenced me and in that light, I have some honorable mentions. Janet Quarrie, Rashade St. Patrick, Martina Taylor, and Tiffany Lue-Yen, I love you guys and thank you so much.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
During university, I had to manage my schoolwork along with my photography business. In my second year, I started the internship and I officially decided that I wanted to see if I could pursue photography as a viable career path. The real challenge came in final year where being a Computer Science Major, there is a semester-long course which required us to create a business with a working website. We had to do the whole process from front to back end which required a lot of time for meetings and staring at screens trying to get code to work. I remember having to leave work to go to my meetings then back to work and having to do extra schoolwork on the weekends to compensate for whatever classes I might have missed. Thankfully, I had an amazing group of friends (Shawna, Aundre & Saran) who helped me to overcome that time and now I have a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science.
My other tough point was brought about by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Things were a lot slower, and I was in the infancy of my own business, and I started to wonder if this job was going to be able to sustain me or if I’d be better off using my degree to find a traditional job. In my spare time, I started to watch some Web Development courses and learning Ux/UI design, but my heart was never fully in it. Thankfully, I didn’t have to dwell on it for too long as things started to take a turn as vaccines started to become available and more information came out about the virus. One of my biggest mantras in life is that everything happens for a reason. It definitely was a tough time, but it allowed my business to pivot and grow and now my core business is wedding, and corporate production, and I could not be happier with it.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My personality can be pretty intense sometimes because I have the tendency to be a perfectionist. This has made me very detail-oriented which means I pay keen attention to detail. On a wedding day, aside from the bride and groom portrait session, I have the most fun shooting the details and set up of the decor. I recently did a job in Negril where all I did was shoot decor and I was in heaven.
I love to appreciate the beauty of things and try to capture and preserve that for others to see. I have a unique way of capturing emotion in my images which in turn causes you to feel what the subject of the photos might have felt or how I might have felt capturing the image. In practice, though the moment when a couple kisses is breathtaking, the second after they remove their intertwined lips and open their eyes to look at each other, that’s the shot. That shot encapsulates all the love they have for each other and all the anxiety that they’ve felt up to that point being released. I love that shot.
Every day I go to work, I’m happy. I’m most proud of the community that has been cultivated around me. I am never left lacking for anything. If I need a graphic designer, I have one, make-up artist, you name it. If I don’t have a lens, I know who to contact. You get the picture. I’m proud that people trust me enough to be there for me when I need them and conversely, know that I’ll always be there for them.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
To be a creative is a pretty draining and daunting task at times but what I have found to be helpful is having a supportive community and taking breaks. Let me expound. I have friends and colleagues around me who are inspired to create, and they allow me not to forget about the simple joys of photography. Having your hobby become your job oftentimes removes the gratification from it but when you have a friend or friends who are driven to create, they help pull you along when you might get bogged down. Two examples of this in my life are Kristia Franklin and Maria Hetey. Transitioning to a full-time wedding and corporate photographer has made me do lifestyle/fashion-based shoots much less. These two continuously send me inspiration and set up shoots to keep fanning my creative flame and it gives me an outlet to express myself. These shoots also give me a break from the genre of photography that I would normally be focused on.
There is duality in taking breaks. In one breath, it is important to take yourself out of your regular routine – break it- and photograph something new or challenge yourself to create that spark you first had. In another breath, it is important to just stop being a photographer, a cinematographer, a creator. It is important to take a break from the job itself. I find that if I work too long or too continuously, I get burnt out and I lose some my want to create, and it starts to feel more like a job I MUST do instead of one I WANT to do. Balance in life is a key no matter which industry you fall in, and it is especially necessary to the creative process. I try to take a break at the end of each month where I go and spend time with my friends and stay home to binge-watch whatever series I missed out on. I take a break to be Jonathan South the individual, not Jonathan South, the business owner, photographer, cinematographer, etc.
To inspire, we must first be inspired and sometimes we just need a reset.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Kristia Franklin
