The San Francisco-based adventure photographer talks about his work, the apparel he lives in, and what he’s learned during this time of social distancing.
How long have you worked with VOORMI?
Two years. But first it took two years of badgering you guys with emails before I got hired.
What type of photography are you most interested in?
Adventure photography, unsurprisingly. The photographs that have had the biggest impact on me are the ones that make me crave a place, and more specifically an adventure. If looking at a photo makes me want to buy a plane ticket, that’s pretty powerful.
I try to reflect that in my own work by telling a story about an interaction with a place. Whether it’s a trail runner on a ridgeline or a truck moving over arctic tundra, my goal is to show how things or people experience their environment.
Can you show us your favorite photograph that you’ve taken?
This photo was taken in 2013 in the Lofoten Islands in northern Norway.
I shot this with an original Canon 5D. Its internal mirror had literally fallen out on an Arctic beach and I’d had to super-glued it back on with Loctite.
This is a place where my brother Spencer and I spent a night. We’d bought fish burgers the night before in town and ruined them over an over-performing Jetboil. They were just so bad. I woke up to make coffee and snapped a few frames while Spencer was waking up.
I didn’t know I had made an image that was important to me until getting back to the U.S. a few weeks later. Sometimes...you’re too close to the epic.
Details: 2005 Canon 5D (full frame, 12 mega-pixel) @ 24mm, f10, 1/60th, ISO500
What’s the best part about your job?
The people I get to work with. The guides, creative directors, athletes, art directors, boat captains, and designers I have been lucky enough to spend time with are incredible. They have directly shaped my career as well as my way of thinking and living.
The worst?
Finding brands that trust me to deliver consistently has been the biggest challenge. And also the biggest reward.
Who inspires you?
Some photographers who have inspired me the most over the years have been Cameron Hammond, Jeffrey Davis, Jean Lebee, Joey Schusler, and Chris Burkard.
Where is your favorite place to work?
Inside a pub somewhere on the North Atlantic, planning the next day’s or week’s adventure. It’s raining very hard. There’s nothing like planning adventure while on an adventure.
Nikon or Canon?
My Canon 5D and 1D cameras have endured things that cameras should not. I also own a Leica Q. Please don’t ask me if I’m considering a switch to Sony.
Have you learned anything while social distancing you might want to share?
The first three seasons of Magnum P.I. are ever so slightly better than the final 4. I’ve also learned to embrace the role of staying at home with our little three-month-old baby girl, Leia, while my wife, who is a physician, goes to work at the hospital. I’ve really enjoyed this special solo time with our daughter, which is perhaps a silver lining of the social distancing in this pandemic.
Although my wife calls it forced paternity leave.
What's your go-to piece of apparel?
I spend a great deal of time in San Francisco, where it is neither very cold nor very warm. The High-E Hoodie is easily a daily go-to. As is the River Run Hoodie, which I wear to protect myself from poison oak when I mountain bike.
See more from Jordan: http://jordanrosenphotography.com/