Many of us are familiar with UNION coffee but not many know the man behind the camera, Lawrence Jasper. Lawrence is an older gentleman with a soft and raspy voice and hair colored like the snow.  Quite often, he finds himself photographing. We sat down with him to learn more about his life as an individual and an artist and learn about how he feels photography.

Although he doesn’t know what initially got him into photography he recalls what got him to continue with it when he built his own darkroom when he was a teen. “I could get my own equipment,” he began in a cheery voice, “I just liked it, I think it was interesting to see a white piece of paper start to have dark places on it then they would increase, increase and I could see my picture and I could wait until it was just right and take it out and stop it and put it in the next tray and that would freeze the picture right where it was- I was just fascinated by that.” The fascination behind developing photos is what helped him stay in the pursuit of photography.

Although his appeal for photography started when he was a teen, he bought his first DSLR camera only 10-15 years ago. “It was just a drive, a need,” he began.“Something that I wanted to do without having any particular reason for it.” He later added: “And so it just stayed with me so I followed it, I had time.”

Jasper often feels guilty while he photographs, as he finds photography often takes time away from something else that could be considered much more important, regardless of all the support he has, his wife. “My wife is extremely supportive, this is important too”. His wife in response said: “I figured you worked hard when you were working. I had a chance to do a lot of stuff that I wanted to do and enjoyed doing, and so you worked hard you should be doing this.” Given the support he’s been granted, he tries to continue to create guilt-free.

Jasper talked a lot about feeling photography. “I heard from someone, a good photographer I met a while ago, he said that he doesn’t see pictures-he feels them, meaning that when there’s a situation that could be moving or interesting you feel something.” Adding to this statement, he said he knows when and where he needs to take a specific picture, “It stops you saying this is gonna be good.” Through this he’s learned to always carry a camera with him as there are things he’s regretted not being able to capture.

Though he still consistently works on improving his skills, he had some advice for aspiring photographers: “If you want to do it, do it…What worked for me was following my feelings. And maybe decide if you ever get into it, do you want to do it in order to make a living or do you want to do it as a hobby?  That’s where I am right now. I don’t want to make a living, but do I want to get as good as the big boys and girls.” In order to improve his skills, Jasper attends workshops, subscribes to journals, reads about photography, and seeks out people who are better than him to see what they could teach him, sometimes even for a sum of money. Despite his time at UNION over the past few years being well spent, he doesn’t think he will return after COVID as he’s been enjoying the different aspects of photography.   

Check out his social media accounts (linked below) to see more of his amazing work!

Lawrence Jasper Facebook

Lawrence Jasper Instagram