Meet Stephan Jahanshahi | Photographer, Writer, and Comic

We had the good fortune of connecting with Stephan Jahanshahi and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Stephan, why did you pursue a creative career?
The short answer is Indiana Jones. I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark when I was 7 or so, and it was the first time I realized that the thing I was watching had been someone’s idea before it was anything else. Once that clicked for me; that ideas could be made tangible, that’s all I wanted to do. There is an incredibly large gulf between the aspirations and the realities of pursuing a career as an artist. You have to learn to handle rejection, and be comfortable enough with initial failures to be able to find the lessons in them. Then there is the reality that trend, taste, interest from the public are almost entirely out of your control. But despite those hurdles I’ve never considered a different path in earnest. I feel the most like myself when I’m in the middle of making something, I feel the most at peace when it’s done and out in the world, and I feel the most optimistic when I’m figuring out what to make next.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My visual arts practice is primarily fine art, editorial and portrait photography.  Each of these genres of work have unique challenges and intentions attached to them. I try to strike a balance between them by approaching every assignment as a story to tell, you’re trying to express a personal truth but you have to use the external world to do it. Todd Hido refers to photography as this liminal space in-between art and storytelling and I really love thinking of the medium as this bridge that connects interior and exterior experiences.

The first steps in my career were pretty conventional. I had worked as a staff photographer for my college’s athletics department during my undergrad and graduated with a minor in photography, I decided to move to NYC and pursue an MFA in photography and try to fully immerse myself in the art world there. Upon graduating I found out there weren’t too many immediate opportunities to show art as an unknown entity in NYC, but I kept saying yes to opportunities as they arose and eventually the momentum started to shift in my favor. I’ve learned in the years since that the biggest asset one can have in pursuing a career as an artist is resilience, and that there is no substitute for building a community around you. This industry gives interest and opportunities on its own terms, it can’t really be manipulated or sped up to meet your timeline so you have to figure out how to hang on and keep making work that expresses your vision.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love that Los Angeles takes it’s time to reveal itself to you, it’s not a city that gives up it’s charms with immediacy. I love engaging with the comedy scene here as a burgeoning comic, going to mics and shows at the Store and the Improv but also getting off the beaten path a bit in spaces like the Lyric Hyperion, Dynasty Typewriter and the Glendale Room. For nights out I like to keep it pretty casual, getting dinner at a neighborhood haunt like Woon or Dan Sung Sa, or going into Glendale to get kebab koobideh at Raffi’s.

If I’m meeting friends for a night out I’m a big fan of the soul night at El Cid, or going for drinks at El Condor or Bar Henry. The arts district during openings is always a fun time and I love grabbing a drink at Here and Now or Angel City Brewery and talking about the shows we just saw. I think the Los Angeles art scene has done a great job staying open to being playful despite also being a major art market, there’s a lot of experimentation that’s happening in galleries here and it’s a really interesting time to engage with the art scene in the city.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
At the risk of sounding like the Fast and Furious franchise my shoutout has to go to family. My parents have always been incredibly supportive of me, showing that support most in the ways they’ve trusted me to figure things out for myself. I also have an incredible sister who’s also an artist, our practices are very different but I draw a lot of strength from the knowledge we’re both making work to find our places in the world. Shoutout being an LA magazine I’ll finish with my favorite Angeleno, Tracy Chou. Tracy’s family were neighbors of my grandparents in St. Louis before they moved to Los Angeles, and our families have been intertwined ever since. Moving to Los Angeles was daunting but Tracy and her family made sure I found my feet quickly.

Website: www.stephanjahanshahi.com

Instagram: @stephanjahanshahi