Sim­ply put, I am Stephen Jack­son, a 24-year-old pho­tog­ra­pher who loves to view life through a lens. Every moment is a moment we can never get back, and I enjoy know­ing that, with cam­era in hand, I can cap­ture those moments in a way that is unique and subjective.

I decided to take the plunge into pro­fes­sional pho­tog­ra­phy in early 2009. Meet­ing new peo­ple and being cre­ative are my moti­va­tion, so pho­tog­ra­phy was a step in the per­fect direc­tion; more­over, with years of expe­ri­ence in oil paint­ing under my belt and an art minor from Val­dosta State Uni­ver­sity, pho­tog­ra­phy was a nat­ural tal­ent to take on, and one I found that I loved like noth­ing else.

As for what really led me to photography…

Inside of us all is a dri­ving pas­sion, an inescapable desire to do… some­thing. In some, it can be extreme, like bungee jump­ing or rock climb­ing. Oth­ers find that thoughts of fam­ily, pro­mo­tions, or trav­el­ing can quench that inner thirst. As for me, it was to put the pieces together, to fix wrongs and make them right, and even to cre­ate some­thing out of nothingness.

For some time, my pas­sion cre­ated two oppo­sites in me. On one side of the coin, I wanted noth­ing more than to talk to peo­ple, to find out more about their lives, and if pos­si­ble, to help them. I’d push aside any­thing on my plate for a friend who needed an ear or a shoul­der. The flip-side was a young man who wanted silence and seclu­sion so he could be cre­ative in peace. In that aspect, grow­ing up I spent long hours play­ing vio­lin and paint­ing pic­tures far from pry­ing eyes.

It wasn’t until late in my col­lege years that I real­ized the two could be com­bined. I spent what sav­ings I had on a “pro­fes­sional” DSLR. Every day I came home, I couldn’t help but take hun­dreds of pic­tures, whether it be of my ani­mals, my fiancée, or just about any­thing that would sit still. When the oppor­tu­nity to be a sec­ond shooter at a wed­ding arose, I took the oppor­tu­nity, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

I now spend my time as a full-time pho­tog­ra­pher. When I have the chance, I come home to relax with my beau­ti­ful wife and our three dogs.