Interview with Jana Langhorst for 2021 ILFORD Salon 2021
Photography by Jana Langhorst
Jana Langhorst is a German-born photographer who captures mostly food — sometimes places and people. Jana has entered Salon a number of times.
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What's your name and background?
Jana Langhorst: Jana Langhorst — I grew up in Germany before leaving and permanently moving to Australia when I was 19. Before turning to photography I worked as a chef and food stylist/menu writer which explains why most of my work is heavily food and beverage focused
Is this the first time you have participated in Salon, and what is the story behind your submitted works?
JL: I’ve entered the Salon in previous years. This year's entries are personal works created in between and during lockdowns, trying to find creativity within the process in a time when the creative flame seemed to have died.
What inspires you to take photos?
JL: Shapes, light and emotions — what you feel or look at might be seen very differently by someone else — especially when it comes to everyday objects.
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How do you prefer to shoot and using what genre of instrument?
JL: Shooting within the safety of my studio using a mix of digital and analog medium format and 35mm cameras; I mainly shoot with lights, not so often with natural light even though every time I do I ask myself why I don’t do it more.
Has your use of social media changed or influenced the way that you create, share and view your work?
JL: It did at the start and probably still does — I have moments where I don’t share much as I struggle to identify with where I am at and whether I want to just create work for Instagram or create work that is allowed to sit unnoticed until it's ready, ready to be printed or sit somewhere where it won’t disappear in the second of a scroll.
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Which is stronger to you the influence of people or the influence of place?
JL: Place is hugely important to me, I didn’t realise until the pandemic struck and there was nowhere else to go, I struggled with the limitation of space and place.
If you could quiz one photographer about their method, who would it be?
JL: Robert Mapplethorpe would have been a photographer I would have loved to watch at work.
For more of Jana's work visit www.janalanghorst.com — it's forever in the process of being updated and having prints added. You can also follow Jana on Instagram @jana_langhorst.
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