Our Featured Filmmaker, Jeff Hutchens, discusses his journey as a prize winning photojournalist, his adventures traveling the world and his road to documentary filmmaking. For over 10 years, Jeff's work has been seen in The New York Times, CNN, Time Magazine and The National Geographic Channel. Today, Jeff elaborates on what it really takes to make it in the competitive world of photojournalism and documentary filmmaking. What happens on the journey is what really what defines you as an artist. When asked what he loves most about being a photographer and a filmmaker, Jeff says, "The challenge of taking reality and trying to turn it into something transcendent. Working with the confines of the real world and seeing what beauty you can discover without manipulating what's actually there." Read more about Jeff's adventures and travels in the Amazon, South Africa, China, and even the Arctic circle. The way he looks at the world…will change the way you think about the world.
ZAKOUMA, CHAD – OCTOBER 2008: Storks land on a tree over the grasslands of Zakouma National Park where poachers fire automatic weapons into a herds of elephant to kill them for their ivory on October 24, 2008 in Zakouma, Chad. The park is home to vastly diminishing elephant herds that have been ravaged by poachers over the last several years. It's ground zero in the ivory wars. (Photo by Jeff Hutchens/Reportage by Getty Images)
Jeff, how do you feel about coming from the world of photography and photojournalism and now transitioning into filmmaking?
I've been a photojournalist for the last 10 years – shooting a variety of assignments, primarily longer-form documentary essays since about 2001 – for everyone from Time, The New York Times Magazine, CNN and The National Geographic Channel, working across the U.S., Asia and Central and Southern Africa, primarily. I love it. I love creating anything within the visual medium, so doing additional work on the film side of things was a natural progression. I'll always be a still photographer though, and will hopefully shoot film with a cinematic style informed by how I approach the world as a still photographer – but I am loving the additional toys that film gives you to play with in terms of time, sound and motion. My brother and I also host a TV series for The National Geographic Channel called "Lost in China," so I think that's also given me a familiarity with the film medium that I may not have otherwise had coming straight in from still photography.
ZAKOUMA, CHAD – OCTOBER 2008: Chadian soldiers train before going on patrol in the bush of Zakouma National Park to stop the poachers attempting to kill elephants for their ivory on October 24, 2008 in Zakouma, Chad. The park is home to vastly diminishing elephant herds that have been ravaged by poachers over the last several years. It's ground zero in the bloody ivory wars, where firefights between the protectors of the park and poachers on horseback leave many dead on both sides every year. (Photo by Jeff Hutchens/Reportage by Getty Images for CNN)
KAOHSIUNG, TAIWAN – JULY 3: Traces of footprints, and wet streaks from where shark bodies have been dragged by sit in front of countless shark fins sit for sale on a dock where shark fins are sold on July 3, 2008 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Millions of sharks are killed every year for their fins, primarily for use in shark fin soup traditionally served at weddings. Ironically, the shark fin in shark fin soup adds no flavor to the dish, but the higher the shark fin content, the more prestige attached to the person who serves it. The harvesting of the fins is decried by many as the fins are hacked off the shark out on the open ocean while the animal is still alive, and then its body is dumped back into the water where it drowns. (Photo by Jeff Hutchens/Reportage by Getty Images for CNN)
KOLKATA, INDIA – FEBRUARY 8: A man sits outside his home in a village outside of Kolkata, India on February 8th, 2011.
(Screen grab from a film – Jeff Hutchens)
What do you love about the film industry and the process?
Being able to take "how I see the world" and distill it into a format that I can share with others, always an exciting creative challenge. I'm not so interested in a literal depiction of the world, but I'm more fascinated with creating imagery that conveys a mood – that hints at internal worlds not always apparent from cursory surveys of street scenes around us.
From where or from whom do you get your inspiration?
I'm a big fan of the work of photographers Antonine D'Agata and Gueorgui Pinkhassov. Other than that, it's mostly poets and writers, primarily John Cheever who had a wonderful line from his book, "The Wapshot Scandal" – He believed that, "Whatever we pay for our loves in money, venereal disease, scandal or ecstasy, we leave behind us, in the hotels, motels, guest rooms, meadows and fields where we discharge this much of ourselves, either the scent or goodness or the odor of evil, to influence those who come after us." Bottom line, my motivation is exploring the hidden subcurrents of life that work there way through the world around us but don't readily come to the fore.
ZAKOUMA, CHAD – OCTOBER 2008: A conservationist's plane casts a crucifix-like shadow over an elephant herd as it flies over Zakouma National Park doing aerial surveys to record the health of the elephant population on October 24, 2008 in Zakouma, Chad. The park is home to vastly diminishing elephant herds that have been ravaged by poachers over the last several years. It's ground zero in the ivory wars. (Photo by Jeff Hutchens/Reportage by Getty Images)
SINGAPORE – AUGUST 6: Images from around Singapore on August 6, 2010.
(Jeff Hutchens/Reportage by Getty Images)
KASHGAR, CHINA – OCTOBER 10, 2007: A worker walks by a window inside the Yengisar Knife Factory run by Uyghur muslims, a Chinese minority based in the province of Xinjiang, on October 10, 2007 in Yengisar, China. Uyghur culture is under threat by the increasing Sinicization of the region by the dominant Han chinese government. (Photo by Jeff Hutchens/Reportage by Getty Images)
KAKTOVIK, ALASKA – APRIL 29, 2007: A polar bear lies sedated above the Arctic Circle, felled by a tranquilizer dart from a United States Geological Survey (USGS) scientist researching the health of global polar bear populations on April 29, 2007 in Kaktovik, Alaska, USA. As fears of global warming mount, scientists are debating whether or not to preemptively include polar bears on the endangered species list. (Photo by Jeff Hutchens/Reportage by Getty Images for CNN)
Anything unusual ever happen on set or location?
My still career has been wacky so far. Everything from picking up a nasty parasite called "Creeping Eruption" in the Amazon, to being kicked out of a province by Chinese officials during Tibetan Buddhist riots, to holding a snoring baby polar bear in the Arctic Circle. If there's one thing you can definitively say about this profession, it's not short on surreal experiences…
Any other things you want to add about your background or history?
I was a psychology and pre-med major in college – and basically self-taught as a photographer/filmmaker. Kind of a fun way to come to visuals – a different background coming into this field can give you a different approach to your work – so I'm pretty thankful for that!
BEIJING, CHINA – SEPTEMBER 28: Street scenes on September 28, 2010 in Beijing, China.
(Jeff Hutchens/Reportage by Getty Images)
XISHUANGBANNA, CHINA – MARCH 20: Fish swim in a pond creating surreal patterns on the water surface above on March 20, 2008 in Xishuangbanna, China. (Photo by Jeff Hutchens/Reportage by Getty Images)
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA – MARCH 28: Unearthed skulls of those killed at the Cheong Ek Killing Fields outside of Phnom Penh, Cambodia are see through glass while a Cambodian flag flies in a reflection at the Killing Fields on March 28, 2007 outside of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Canadian Robert Petit will attempt to hold accountable those responsible for the over 1.8 million deaths during the Khmer Rouge regime's control of Cambodia from 1975 through 1979. The Khmer Rouge tribunal will be unique in that the court will be conducted using Cambodian rather than international laws, there is a three year time limit, and many key witnesses as well as Khmer Rouge leaders have died.
Jeff Hutchens shooting on location in Calcutta with the Zacuto Double Barrel.
February 4, 2011 (Photo by Morgana Wingard)
Photographer Jeff Hutchens, photographed in the Taklamakan Desert, Xinjiang, China by Peter Hutchens.
Jeff Hutchens was born in Lansing, Michigan in 1978. The son of an American diplomat, he spent his childhood throughout the U.S. and across China, South Africa, and the Philippines. Jeff has shot professionally on six continents, where he’s faced grizzly bears, lava floes, Komodo dragons, and all manner of corrupt officials. From work on the surreality of life in China, to documenting underground epidemics in the jungles of central Africa, to photographing polar bears in the Arctic Circle, he captures images that convey transcendent moods and subtle beauty.
Jeff was recognized as one of “PDN’s 30” (2009) and has won multiple awards in the World Press Photo competition, National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) Best Of Photojournalism competition, Pictures Of The Year (POYi) and Communication Arts (CA). Additionally, Jeff and his filmmaker brother Peter are the subject of a six-part travel/adventure series airing on the National Geographic Channel. The show follows them as they document far-flung regions of China through their respective lenses. Jeff is represented by Reportage by Getty Images and lives in Washington, D.C. when not on assignment.
Learn more about Jeff Hutchens at www.jeffhutchens.com, www.jeffhutchens.com/
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