Urban creator Jennifer Kesteleyn traded her PhD for a career in photography.

February 14, 2019

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min read

Jennifer Kesteleyn has been working as a photographer at Chase since the summer of 2017. 2018 was the year Jennifer decided to work full time with her camera and focus on developing her own style and direction in photography.

The Chase Urban Creators are digital creatives who make videos, photos, articles, and social stories about topics such as urban music, lifestyle, creatives, and society. It is a diverse group of young people looking for a platform for their passions and to sharpen their skills.

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How did you get into the world of photography?

I got the opportunity to start a PhD nine years ago, when I graduated from the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences. As an assistant in the International Relations and Diplomacy program, I was able to travel a lot, and that is how my interest in photography started. Mainly because I wanted to take nice photos for Instagram to show what I was experiencing during my adventures.

I quickly signed up for evening classes in photography and continued traveling for a while, but photography remained more of a hobby. Until the final year of my PhD: I completely burned out. Was academic research really my thing? My interest in photography kept growing and my online posts were quickly noticed. At that time, I mainly made self portraits in abandoned buildings and somehow that appealed to people. I eventually decided to give myself a year to reflect on what I wanted to do. During that year, I noticed that I was taking photos all the time and I started to see more and more potential in it. Last year, I finally took the step and now I have an artist status as a photographer.

And now you are working as an urban creator at Chase?

The year I stopped my PhD, I ended up on Chase's Facebook page by coincidence. I saw that they were looking for new collaborators, and that's how I started photographing for them. Chase opened so many doors for me! I was featured in the “top photography on Instagram” section of Chase, which led to Motorola Belgium seeing my photos. Through them, I landed my first big assignment. This client still comes back to me, and through them I also give workshops on smartphone photography in Amsterdam.

For young photographers or journalists, Chase is an ideal platform to get assignments and to learn. Because if you have a creative profession, you are constantly looking for new challenges. So the more people see your photos, the faster you become known and therefore get work. I get all my assignments through social media. Instagram and Facebook are the channels I get most of my work from. People contact you faster on Messenger than they call you.

Have you also had negative experiences with social media?

The only thing I can think of is that one time I photographed a girl at a festival who later emailed me asking to remove the photo from social media, which I did immediately. But apart from that, I really do not care about social media policies, like those of Instagram. You have to agree to a transferable sublicense so they can use posted content. I do not think Instagram is going to bother selling my photos. I don't really mind what happens to my images, except for my personal work. You do not take a photo to hide it: the best thing that can happen to a photo is that it is seen by many people. For paid assignments, I also sell my rights.

It is the same as going to a bakery and asking for a free loaf of bread on the condition that you write a good online review about how tasty your sandwich is that is not how it works.

Do you have tips for other digital creatives?

I get nervous when people ask me if I want to take photos for free in exchange for exposure. People forget that you have to find models, buy equipment, come up with ideas, and so on. It is the same as going to a bakery and asking for a free loaf of bread on the condition that you write a good online review about how tasty your sandwich is that is not how it works.

At the Cultuurloket, you get a good and clear explanation about which statuses are the most advantageous. That's what I would do as a first step if you are looking for a creative job. Last year, I took the step myself and applied for an artist status. After my career at the university, it was not easy to switch to the irregular life of an artist. But it gives me freedom, and I can do what I want.

For the rest, I can still say this: keep going. I notice with myself as well that when things get difficult, you have to keep going. During a quieter period, I accidentally came across a call for a shoot for Who's That Girl? through a Facebook ad. I was eventually selected based on my personal work.

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So your personal work remains important?

My personal work is my calling card: it shows who I am. So it is important that your own calling card is as strong as possible. Instagram and Tumblr are good platforms to develop this. Facebook still works as well, in a strange way. Instagram is for younger people, but on Facebook you have a slightly older generation that is also more willing to spend money on shoots. I have a professional page that is almost dead, but on my personal page I still have many friends and followers.

So I am glad there is a kind of separation: Instagram appeals to younger people, Facebook is for the older generation. I do fear that once that generation also moves to Instagram, the platform will not have a long lifespan anymore. With the changes in the algorithm, it is sometimes already difficult to understand how the reach system works. But who knows what will come after Instagram? There is already Behance, but it doesn't really seem to catch on.

So as a photographer, being active on many channels is not that time consuming. You have already taken the photo and done the work, so it really just comes down to posting, because the storytelling itself has already happened. I also post at a different frequency because I am not a blogger. Posting is the result of what I already do all day on my own, it is a reflection of my work.

How did working at Chase influence your work?

Chase made sure that I finished in third place at the Red Bull Electropedia — Nightlife Photography two years ago, and in 2018 I finished second. Through Chase, I get to cover a large number of festivals, so they really support me in my passion for this type of photography. Festival shoots also provide a lot of exposure, which helps grow your network.

It's also a whole experience, photographing at festivals. You get three songs' time to stand at the front in the pit. The rush you feel having to capture both the atmosphere and the artist in nine minutes, the thrill of standing in front of that entire crowd, is amazing. You have to stay very focused and concentrated and not panic. I also only work with one body, a telephoto lens to photograph the artist and a wide angle lens for the crowd. At festivals, you can really experiment, like I did with star filters last year. At festivals, things are less strict, so you can truly express yourself and, in the best case, even earn money from it.

Because of my artist status, I have a lot of freedom, so I told Chase that I have an entire summer available to cover festivals. I have been working with Chase for two years now, and the collaboration has grown organically. Sometimes I work for free when I have the time, and sometimes they book me for paid assignments.

What's your most memorable anecdote while working for Chase?

The moment I took that photo of Pharrell. Last year I was in the pit at Pukkelpop, a spot I got through Chase. When I arrived there, as one of the few female photographers, you could see all the men looking like, “ah, the young girl.” N.E.R.D's performance started and everyone was standing at the front. For some reason, I had just changed lenses, moved away from the others and was standing at the side of the stage. I turned around, saw Pharrell jump, and without thinking I took that photo.

All the male photographers also had good photos, but more of the classic shots. And when I showed that photo, you could see on their faces that they were thinking, “crap, that young girl here even has the best photo!” That was amazing. Just the fact that I can seize all those opportunities is memorable. You get to meet people within the community. That's why the best advice I can give is: go outside, look for small jobs, and then you will quickly notice what you like and what you do not like. And for this, Chase is a good platform to start.

Do you mainly want to remain a festival photographer?

I started my career with self portraits and personal work, and fashion is clearly the direction I want to continue in. The idea is that my personal work and fashion will start to blend together. Some photographers start by posting fashion photos on Instagram and are later picked up by fashion brands or houses who ask them to shoot campaign photos in their own style. My approach is therefore to get paid jobs through my personal work.

That's why my style on Instagram is constantly evolving. If you do not evolve as a photographer, people lose interest. You will always have a number of themes that keep coming back. For me, those are my self portraits, but I am developing a new style that focuses more on social criticism. I have always had a vintage graphic style, but at the moment I have adopted a paler style with softer colors. Normally I use a lot of shadows and flash, but I have never received as many likes and reactions as I do now.

In addition, all my new works have titles like “not working on my summer body”, “women behind the wheel is blood on the wall”, and so on. I want to give every photo a twist so I can highlight modern day feminism a bit. It is a very hot topic, the whole #MeToo campaign and cyber feminism, and it is still absurd that after so many years we are still dealing with this unequal struggle.

Is developing your own style further your goal for 2019?

Yes, those are skills I want to refine this year. To dive deeper into fashion photography and bring more of the emotions from my personal work into it. People are drawn to my self portraits because those images truly reflect what I feel. Hopefully, 2019 will be the year I really break through with this.

Interview by Joke D'Hooghe.

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