Photography

For over 20 years and up to the pandemic, Jason worked as an international photojournalist and magazine photo editor. Now, photography is often built into the work we do with our filmmaking and multimedia projects and with our clients. Recent combined projects include photographing for USAID in the Philippines, Peru, and Madagascar, for WWF in Mexico and Namibia, for Rare in Indonesia, and documenting work to end homelessness across the US for Community Solutions.

Jason is a grateful alumnus of the Missouri Photo Workshop, a Senior Fellow in the International League of Conservation Photographers, a Fellow at Wake Forest University’s Andrew Sabin Center for Environment and Sustainability, and the 2022 Environmental Peacemaking (EnPAx) Arts Fellow. His work has been published, exhibited, premiered, and presented around the world in outlets and venues ranging from The New York Times, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, National Geographic, Smithsonian, Science Magazine, WWF, and The Nature Conservancy, to Mountainfilm, SxSW, Harvard, Yale, Duke, the New Mexico Museum of Art, UNESCO, San Francisco Art Institute, and USAID.

His recent and longterm ongoing work in the Peruvian Amazon, LAST WILDEST PLACE, has been recognized as a finalist/honorable mention in the Portfolio category in 2024 MontPhoto; as a Platinum winner in three categories in the 2024 Muse International Awards (Photojournalism, Documentary, and B&W Photojournalism); and as a ‘Remarkable Artwork’ at the 2022 Siena International Photo Awards in Siena, Italy in the Storyboard Category. In 2020, it was awarded first place in the ZEKE Award for Documentary Photography which included publication in ZEKE Magazine and exhibitions at Photoville in New York, Bridge Gallery in Cambridge MA, South Orange Performing Arts Center in South Orange NJ, and several other locations. And in 2014, Last Wildest Place was awarded the Jonny Copp award, and early work was exhibited at the Adventure Film Festival in Boulder, CO in 2016.

WWW.JASONHOUSTON.COM

Visit www.jasonhouston.com to learn more about Jason’s photography.

Jason photographing drying sardines for an eight16 project with USAID and Fish Right in the Philippines. © Deng Fuentes

BEHIND-THE-SCENES

Part of the development of this project and its proof of concept included working with my life+creative partner and engaging with/observing others in our personal arts community as they made their own collages and discovered their own meanings in temporary combinations of my images.

BEHIND-THE-SCENES

Some friends created more literal collages and some made them more conceptual or even abstract. Some talked about what they meant to them, or what they were trying to say, or where it helped them see something differently. Some just made the collage and stepped back, refusing to put words to it. Each example reinforced how much context can change even the most "objective" photojournalistic image.

BEHIND-THE-SCENES

Each photograph is hand mounted on wood museum blocks then coated in acrylic paints and clear gels before being varnished. Mounted prints are combined into collages and screwed together creating 3 dimensional objects.

BEHIND-THE-SCENES

There are currently several hundred source images from pervious assignments and my private "photo journal". Mounted image sizes range from 4" square to 20" long edge.

WHAT IS FOUND THERE 721

Hand-mounted photographs on wood blocks, with acrylic paint and gel, and matte varnish. 28” x 15” x 1.5”

WHAT IS FOUND THERE 816

Hand-mounted photographs on wood blocks, with acrylic paint and gel, and matte varnish. 29” x 22” x 2.125”

WHAT IS FOUND THERE 021

Hand-mounted photographs on wood blocks, with acrylic paint and gel, and matte varnish. 24” x 15” x 1.5”

WHAT IS FOUND THERE 131

Hand-mounted photographs on wood blocks, with acrylic paint and gel, and matte varnish. 22” x 13” x 1.5”

WHAT IS FOUND THERE 522

Hand-mounted photographs on wood blocks, with acrylic paint and gel, and matte varnish. 21.5” x 14” x 1.5”

WHAT IS FOUND THERE 612

Hand-mounted photographs on wood blocks, with acrylic paint and gel, and matte varnish. 12” x 20” x 1.5”

WHAT IS FOUND THERE 045

Hand-mounted photographs on wood blocks, with acrylic paint and gel, and matte varnish. 30” x 16” x 2.125”

WHAT IS FOUND THERE 673

Hand-mounted photographs on wood blocks, with acrylic paint and gel, and matte varnish. 28” x 18” x 2.125”

WHAT IS FOUND THERE 013

Hand-mounted photographs on wood blocks, with acrylic paint and gel, and matte varnish. 35” x 12.5” x 1.5”

WHAT IS FOUND THERE 219

Hand-mounted photographs on wood blocks, with acrylic paint and gel, and matte varnish. 17” x 12” x 1.5”

Examples from our deconstruction and reimagining of 20 years of Jason’s photojournalism, asking hard questions about representation, authorship, and colonization in an industry Jason has worked in most of his career. Learn more about WHAT IS FOUND THERE on Jason’s photography website.

More examples below from some of Jason’s recent projects.