Pass It On: Jacob Perlmutter

Last outing we featured photographer Max Knight who kindly passed us on to another young photographer and film maker Jacob Perlmutter.

 Jacob started out doing music photography for the NME. This then lead to personal projects, where he took an interest in reportage photography and made projects for Converse and The Orange Dot Gallery, '88 days', an homage to Robert Frank's 'The Americans'. From there Jacob made the transition into film. His recent short, 'French exchange', won Best International Short at IFS festival in LA in March 2012. 

Jacob is currently in the process of writing his first feature film, which he will also be directing. Whilst recently in LA for the film festival, he also made a music video for Fanzine, check it out below, a really nice piece.

A busy boy Jacob is also part of a new blog, 'The breaks', run by Mandi Lennard, where he is uploading a short screenplay each week. Check it out, its a cool concept.

In Jacobs words 'I tend to almost always set and shoot my work in territories foreign to me. There is an honest purity that comes about from constant unrest and traveling alone; the uncompromising grind of the world. Nobody stops. Nobody cares. I find this platform a ripe device to explore my characters.' What a well phrased and interesting way of approaching film. This is undoubtedly what gives his work such a raw and honest feel. Jacob goes on to say 'Humour is also a big part of my work - I am constantly aiming to explore the close relationship between comedy and tragedy, right down to a commercial I made for a Kodak competition'. In our eyes this commercial is perfectly judged, a really nicely thought out concept and beautifully executed. As Jacob says there is a fine line between comedy and tragedy and this explores that knife edge in a very clever manner, i for one came away concluding that the two emotions in fact blur as they meet. The ability to provoke such thought from such a short piece is what makes Perlmutter a talented man.

Jacob was kind enough to also send us these photos, a selection of his favorite snaps:

A really cool little collection, highlighting the depth of Jacobs talent. For more from him visit his website it is well worth a look.

YAWN  

Pass It On: Max Knight

 Pass It On and the blog in general have been neglected recently due to unforeseen circumstances, but we are back with a bang in the form of Max Knight. 

  Max was passed on to Yawn by Ed Haslam, he is a 24 year old photographer from London. For the last three years he has been mainly working in the music industry, shooting stills and videos for major labels. Recently he has been shooting more commercial commissions for small companies and large corporations. In his spare time Max likes taking photographs of cats and 'stupid' things he sees in the street, giving his work a distinct feel.
  
 Max started a record label and club night when he was 18 but was always more interested in shooting the artists and events. He headed to university to study art history but dropped out in his first year after he started receiving regular work from EMI records. This allowed him to take photos for a living... lucky boy!

  Max says of his approach "I enjoy photographing people, I enjoy the pressure of interacting with someone, especially someone who I've never met and doesn't usually have their photograph taken. I think this is why I don't specialise in fashion photography...models are too good at what they do!"  It is this honesty that Max extracts from his subjects that give his photos such an organic and intriguing feel.
 
  This year Max will be putting together a book called Cats in Windows - he has over 50 images so far from around the world. We very much look forward to this as it is right up our street.... watch this space.

Below is a selection of Max's favorite photos he has taken over the years... enjoy. 

YAWN