JONATHAN HIGBEE

When the reality turns into an unexpected world

What fascinates you mostly about street?

I love street photography because I love life. Photographer Siegfried Hansen once told me that “street photography” is a newer term and that this genre used to be called “life photography.” The term “life photography” really make sense with my views on the genre.

Also, I love the challenge of trying to capture a specific story of humanity in one single shot. Unlike documentary photography which largely focuses on a series of images, street photography is tasked with telling the entire story in one photograph. I really like the challenge of doing that, and the image that results when it’s done well.

Which aspects are fun in the relationship between human beings and the environment?

When you live in a chaotic city like New York for awhile, you begin to tune out a lot of the world around you when you're walking the streets.When you first get to the city it can be sensory overload -- an endless stream of strangers, neverending loud noises, buildings and trash and graffiti and cars and pavement everywhere. It's a lot to get a grasp on. But, then you do.

After a bit of time, you stop really paying attention to the living city around you. You can feel like you're on autopilot. That made me sad when that happened to me.

I'm in love with New York and I want to be a part of the chaos that makes this city real. So, playing with humans and the urban environment kind of grew out of that. The relationship New Yorkers share with everything going on around them, including advertisements, street art and buildings, is beautiful to me. I hate that it's easy to lose sight of that beauty, so I'm happy to photograph it as reminder of our relationship with our urban environments.

How much fantasy and imagination do you use in your shots?

I use as much imagination and fantasy in my street photography as possible. My obsession with photography began when I was a young kid, about 8 years old. Back then I'd regularly look at my family's old photo albums, which contained photos that stretched back nearly a century. Experiencing photography filled me with such wonder and imagination as a child. That hasn't stopped as an adult. I still feel a wonder that's hard to describe when I experience photography, and really use my imagination to make work that showcases that.

Has your job been influenced by who or what?

I'm so in love with life and find beauty in even the most banal subject matter (which might be apparent in my urban minimal photography series), so first and foremost, New York City itself -- in every way -- is the primary influence in my street photography. As far as photographers go, I'm regularly amazed by Matt Stuart, Siegfried Hansen, Jesse Marlow, Craig Smetko and Stuart Patton. Filmmakers like Wes Anderson, Stanley Kubrick and Jim Jarmusch also have inspired me.

BIO

Jonathan Higbee (1981) was born and raised in Northwestern Missouri but has called New York home for a decade. He began his career as an editorial assistant for Instinct Magazine, where he quickly found his niche as a travel correspondent, producing copy and photography for extensive international travel features. His love for photography evolved when he moved to New York and began making images of the streets. His street photography has won multiple awards, including the 2015 World Street Photography grand prize, is exhibited across the world, most recently in Paris, and is published regularly, with recent features in Huffington Post, GUP Magazine, Fotopolis, Peta Pixel, the Phoblographer and more.