“Artists II” by Jason Schmidt
CreditJason Schmidt
“Do you remember studying Joseph Campbell’s ‘The Power of Myth’?” asks the photographer Jason Schmidt. “I’ve always been drawn to artists; maybe it sounds corny, but they’re the mythmakers of our time. But,” he continues to think out loud, “they’re also people who decode human experiences and what it means to be human.”
Today, Schmidt and the publisher Steidl release “Artists II,” the follow-up to his 2006 book “Artists,” comprising portraits of 166 painters, sculptors, performers and multidisciplinary creators in their element. He began the project casually two decades ago just by taking pictures of his artist friends. As his own career has flourished, it’s become “a good excuse to meet somebody I’m curious about or who’s a hero of mine,” he explains.
Schmidt’s process is less fly-on-the-wall (he mentions Hans Namuth’s Jackson Pollock series) and more of a partnership. “Sometimes, the shoot will be a full day,” he says. “We’ll email beforehand and talk about where and what the picture could be.” Here, he shares exclusively with T the stories behind 10 of the “Artists II” pictures.
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