Jonathan Taggart is like your new favourite band, except he’s not a band, he’s a photojournalist.  If you could, you would buy his photos on iTunes, and you wouldn’t think twice about the $9.99. You’d even buy them on vinyl because you love them so much. You want to party to his photos, relax to his photos and make-out to his photos. If he went on tour, you’d have advance tickets the moment they went on sale, and you’d wait after the show to meet him and tell him how awesome he was. And you’d be humbled in his presence.  And though he might not be a musician, every one of his photographs carries with it the importance and delicacy of a favorite song. This is only magnified by the fact that he is selective when sharing his images with the public, and precious with the words he accompanies them by.  His photography is Broken Social Scene for it’s visual soundscape, Gord Downie for it’s commentary and Tokyo Police Club for it’s youthfulness.  I’m proud to call Jon one of my best friends, and I’m excited to watch him rise through the ranks of elite Canadian photographers.
Now go buy his f**king album (of photos, that is).

- Tyler Bancroft of Said The Whale

The Proof

01 Fish.  If I had to take one food with me to a desert island (not a dessert island), it would be fish… lots of wild, local fish.

02 The Office.  To the extent that I have an office, this is it.  My home office looks out over a Dairy Queen and is far less inspiring.  Also pictured: school work, a fairly new and unnervingly prominent part of my life.

03 The Part-Time Job.  I work on a boat (see fig. 2), which is great because A) it pays the bills; B) the ocean is beautiful; and C) I can quote The Lonely Island ft. T-Pain and it’s usually funny.

04 UNYA (looks more like “NYA” in this photo, I agree).  I volunteer once a week at the Urban Native Youth Association, teaching photography, making cool photo murals, going on nature walks and spelling things with shadows.  I truly believe that volunteering is one of the best things you can do, ever.

05 Isabel.  It feels odd to be highlighting a truck here, but Isabel has enabled me to do much of the work I do in remote parts of BC.  I bought her for a song years ago and she hasn’t stopped singing!

06 Whiteboard.  I’m a hopelessly visual person, and this surface is essentially and extension of my brain space.  Projects, essays, exhibition plans, shopping lists – everything starts at the whiteboard.  Unless they start with …

07 Notebooks.  Like whiteboards, but portable!  I am addicted to notebooks … rarely can I pass one without being tempted to take it home.

08 Camera bag.  Like Amelie’s parents in the Jean-Pierre Jeunet film, I take immense pleasure in taking everything out of my camera bag, cleaning it out, and putting everything back in.  Packing it is a true pleasure – as with camping, the challenge is always seeing how little you can get away with.

The Questions

What neighbourhood do you live in?
Kitsilano – walking distance from absolutely everything one could possibly need.

What do you do and where?
I am a photographer; some of my work is for non-profits in Vancouver, but I do as much as I possibly can working with rural communities in British Columbia.  I also work part-time as a tugboat deckhand – that work takes place mostly out on the ocean.

What are you working on?
Right now I’m working on a number of things: preparing to go shoot a short video documentary on isolation and ‘the Friction of Distance’ with First Nations communities in the Lillooet River Valley; planning for an exhibition; working as a research assistant in support of a Canada Research Chair grant to help document life in off-the-grid communities in BC and throughout Canada; renovating an old garage into a studio space; constantly researching my own photo projects; and trying to keep my head afloat amid the flotsam and jetsam of literature reviews and research papers.

Where can we find your work?
This month I’m exhibiting some of my work with BC First Nations at The Network Hub (300-422 Richards Street, on view June 16th – July 17th, opening reception June 16th, 6-8pm) as part of their new art gallery initiative. I’ll also be in the Cheaper Show on June 25th, and you can always find my projects online at www.jonathantaggart.com and at www.borealcollective.com.