John Dykstra

Why
Interviewed by Kofi Ansah

A short biography of who John Dykstra is, is very required.

My name is John and I'm photographer from Metro-Detroit, Michigan. I've been shooting since April, 2007, and have since then been captivated by light as a medium.

Its ability to so effectively instill emotion in to the viewer's mind continually drives me to create that next image. My areas of focus are landscape and nature photography.

In particular, my passion is the Great Lakes region, and my goal is to document and, ultimately, to help conserve its innate beauty.

How do you feel about being featured for exhibition 7?

Fantastic. I'm really grateful for the opportunity. Honestly, it's an honor just being part of the foundation for the future artists of this community to build upon. It's quite apparent that we've got a strong future ahead of us, even if we are as a group going through a period of evolution.

Were you expecting to be featured from the amount of submissions you made?

No, not at all.

It was a surprise, as a matter of fact. I've always been a quality over quantity kind of guy, so I wouldn't expect a feature based on the amount of submissions entered. As you know, I've been 'M.I.A' so to speak for the past few months, and I wanted to sort of make up for that. I've only made one contribution in the past two packs that I've been around. As growing artists we all want feedback, and to miss out on that can stunt your growth. This is the reason behind the submissions.

What motivated you to dedicate your time on this exhibition?

My motivation was driven by a combination of circumstances: more free time, an open theme, and a new camera to name a few. Over my holiday and winter breaks I was allowed to essentially catch up on what I had been missing for several months prior; practicing my trades and receiving critique. That's what I wanted most out of this pack - the feedback.

From your DF (Digital Flow) Artist's profile, you state you're a photographer, which means your specialize in that field, however, apart from your lovely photographs, you also made three audio submissions for the pack. Could you elaborate more on how and why you made them?

Absolutely. I'm not exclusive to photography in anyway. I'm also very keen on drawing and paint on the occasion as well, so I would expect a few traditional pieces in the future.

Regarding the music, it's actually a surprise to some of my friends who usually expect me to be more of a visual person, but I feel as if I respond emotionally to aural input more than I do to visual input. I've always been a fan of music and its seeming ability to be able to so quickly infect the listener with the artist's mood and feelings. Recently, I've been falling into an addiction with high-fidelity sound reproduction - I guess you could call me a budding audiophile of sorts.

I've spent a lot of money on sound cards, headphones, amplifiers, and a DAC soon enough. But it wasn't until just this past January that I was given the chance to dabble in the sonic arts.

My friend got me hooked up with FL Studio and a cheap midi-keyboard. Since then I've made a few mellow tracks that I'm digging, but it's definitely a long ways off from where I want them to be.

Obviously, using software, the sounds that I'm able to create aren't anywhere as vast, deep, or detailed, nor as natural or organic as they could ever be had I the opportunity to use analog synthesizers. Unfortunately, those cost a lot of money, and I don't have a lot of money.

Regardless, I'm looking forward to exploring this and other media as far as I am able to.

What inspired you to explore and become a photographer?

I remember the first time I was able to use a camera as a tool for evocative landscape photography was on a missionary trip in 2006. My father and I were flown over to Jamaica to work in the the Blue Mountains on an orphanage for street children living in the dangerous Kingston area.

The location was absolutely surreal. It was here that my father let me use his Sony compact camera to record the beauty I was witnessing. It was also at the beach a few days later that I wrecked this same camera when a rogue wave took me out. Funny story, eh? Nevertheless, I was still in love, and six months later he bought me my first d-slr.

That was the beginning of a long photographic journey. To this very day I'm still captivated by light as a medium, and as a photographer, my ability to be able to bend, manipulate, and paint with this same light to cater to my needs.

It's obviously the newest of visual art forms, and still changing rapidly, so it's a pretty exciting and controversial time for photographic artists to get in on the game.

As a photography Artist, you may sometime find it hard to relate or get shots for a specific theme. How do you personally tackle situations like these?

Having experience in other media, I feel inclined to believe that photography is one of the more difficult visual art mediums there are. Not harder as in the actual technical process of taking a picture, but the creative process of crafting a quality photograph that instills some kind of grandeur emotion from start to finish. Not only can we not make things up with the ease of the painter, but we can only use the limited palette of light we have before us. We have to compose form in such a way that will get the viewer to react to it, and that is difficult.

Honestly, I haven't been around long enough to experience different pack themes and their difficulties, but when subjected to themes I usually run off of my own creative insights from painting, drawing, and now music. No medium is mutually exclusive, and when an artist can run off of what he knows in one genre into another, he's able to innovate more easily and create a more intelligent piece. Of course, with photography, it takes time to get the shot you want. As with all arts, biggest key to a successful piece is previsualization. You have to figure out ahead of time what it is you want to convey, how you're going to do it, then scout out the location and/or subjects necessary. Then you have to work with these subjects until all the variable or conditions are right. If it's a person, you have to capture the raw emotions you're seeking. If it's a landscape, you have to wait for that perfect light. It takes a lot of thought, patience and planning.

Tell us about the camera you use.

I just received my Nikon D90 in November '09. It's a great camera, but I haven't had much time to play with it yet. My first impression is of the great low light ability compared to my old Nikon D50. I am currently still using a kit lens, which I hope to upgrade to the Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 if I ever get the money. My tripod, which is equally important, is the rugged Manfrotto 190proxb.

All-in-all, though. The equipment is not important. The only reason I ever upgrade is for larger, sharper prints. If I didn't want 20"x30" prints sharper than a needle on my wall, I would never upgrade my camera.

Who and what mediums inspire you?

I have a lot of inspirations. As you can imagine, artists are a source of inspiration. Ian Cameron, Tony Kuyper, Guy Tal, Cenci Goepel and Jens Warnecke, many artists on DeviantART, and musical artists like Amon Tobin, Bonobo, Chris Thile, The Books, Tycho. It comes from everywhere. From photography, painters, pencil artists, digital artists, musicians, books, inventors, performers, friends, family, and simple joys in life, like the heat of sunlight on your skin or the warmth of a dog's paw in the palm of your hand.

One of my biggest inspirations is the Detroit Institute of Arts. The giant paintings, highly detailed paintings on the wall that span 50 feet are impressive enough to draw your breath away. I love gigantic pieces.

What do you aspire to?

I just want to create. I want to have a multi-faceted career that culminates music, photography, and traditional arts. I think it's the way to go in the future. I feel that artists that have a hand in multiple trades will not only have more influence in the future, but more room to innovate and a larger creative gamut at their disposal.

How's it feel being a photography artist at Digital Flow and what would you recommend to aspiring photography Artists or other medium Artists in general?

It's always great to get input from other artists, both artists that have an unbiased look toward photography and others that know the medium inside and out.

My largest recommendation for aspiring artists to keep creating.

As Ira Glass tells us -

"The first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good — it’s not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not quite that good. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, your taste is still killer and your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you. A lot of people never get past that phase and a lot of people at that point quit.

And the thing I would just like say to you with all my heart is that most everybody I know who does interesting creative work, they went through a phase of years where they had really good taste and they could tell what they were making wasn’t as good as they wanted it to be. We knew that it didn’t have the special thing that we wanted it to have and the thing to do is — everybody goes through that. And for you to go through it, if you’re going through it right now, if you’re just getting out of that phase or if you’re just starting off and you’re entering into that phase, you’ve got to know it’s totally normal and the most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work."

I'm at this point in my life right now, and the most important thing we can do is to remember that quantity is quality, because the more experience we have, the better we become. Keep doing what you love, and don't skimp out on it!

Are you going to contribute to Exhibition 8?

It's a possibility. It depends on a few things, but I would love to, that's for sure. The challenge keeps your mind and your work fresh.

Thanks a lot for your time and the great feedback.

No problem. Thank you for the opportunity.

Don't forget to check out John Dykstra's portfolio coming this spring at http://jsdykstra.com which will feature his visual work and possibly his audio work if there's any demand.

Until then, you can view his photography on flickr.
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/46613044%40N06/popular-interesting/