B&W Magazine #57, Spotlight Interview by Dean Brierly

Life has been a series of journeys for Jason Mullins, both literal and metaphorical. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1975, his youth was spent in constant flux as his family moved from one Midwest city to another before finally settling in Northern California in the mid-1980s. He retains vivid memories of long car trips during which he would gaze out the window and, by blinking his eyes, “capture” pictures in his mind.

As a photographer currently living in Martinez, the county seat of Contra Costa County, nearly all of Mullins’ images—now captured with a camera—are imbued with a similar sense of movement towards a far-distant horizon. In photographs like PathTaken, Mullins seems to be inviting the viewer to accompany him on the journey.

“I guess I’m a dreamer, always looking towards something in the future,” he says. “Maybe that’s why there’s a certain unknown destination in my pictures. Path Taken is a metaphor for where I’d like to go, photographically: to make a living as a fine-art photographer. For others, it could suggest a place of self realization,a goal or target they hope one day to achieve.”

Another characteristic of Mullins’ work is how deeply rooted it is in nature, with particular emphasis on bodies of water. Even his series on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge—a symbol of urban progress—the feeling is one of escape or transit from the city to the natural world.

“I love being near the water,” he explains. “I love the smell, the sounds, the taste of salt water in the air. And I love photographing objects in the water. I have great respect for the ocean and its power. It’s so vast, mysterious and intimidating.”

Perhaps the most compelling aspect of Mullins’ “water” images is their strong emotional undercurrent. Pictures like Serenity resonate with a sense of secular spirituality that is both calming and restorative. He disclaims trying to make any social or environmental points in his work, although he does enjoy imbuing “ugly” industrial sites near the water with an abstract/ambiguous kind of “beauty.” Images like these hint at the fact that nature will outlast mankind and the various kinds of “footprints” we leave behind.

Mullins initially aspired to a career as a fashion photographer, perhaps envisioning a glamorous lifestyle akin to that of David Hemmings’ character in the film Blow- Up. “That ambition faded very quickly,” he says. “I made good pictures of people, but the interaction didn’t feel natural to me. I needed to spend too much time with my subjects before getting the concept right in my mind. People don’t seem to have patience for that.”

It was in the course of a six-week European backpacking trip that he found himself taking the first tentative steps towards a more artistic photographic path. While in Venice, he was inspired to take an evening time exposure of some poles jutting out of the city’s fabled canal. Shortly thereafter, while taking a photography course at Napa Valley College, he was introduced to the work of Michael Kenna. “When I saw Kenna’s work, I recognized an affinity with the vision I glimpsed in Venice.”

While Kenna’s influence is clearly felt, the quiet restlessness and stark beauty of Mullins’ work attests to his individuality. As does a sense of minimalism that borders on the abstract. The otherworldly light Mullins courts, or rather, creates, via long exposures and liberal dodging and burning in the darkroom enhances this effect. Images taken in daylight often have a nocturnal effect, and viceversa, as he plays with accepted concepts of time. It’s as if his pictures simultaneously represent the natural world and transcend it. “I like that some images I make confuse people in that way. Day or night? Up to the viewer,I guess.”

Mullins is currently working on additional Golden Gate Bridge images with an eye toward publishing an eventual book, and looking to expand his photographic odyssey beyond the geographical realm of Northern California. “I can’t wait to travel to new places and make new images of new landscapes. I’ve only been taking photographs for about seven years, and I’m curious to see what I’ll have created 20 years from now.”

It’s all about the journey.

—Dean Brierly