Jack Scoresby. Maybe the name doesn’t invoke in everyone the same respect and gratitude that it does in me – but that’s only because not everyone knows him. Yet.

I remember Jack emailed me a long time ago and told me he wanted to buy a print. And then emailed me back about a week later and said he couldn’t buy a print anymore because he spent all his money on his birthday party. I looked at the pictures from said party, complete with blow-up castle, lap dances and more alcohol than ever was before – I couldn’t be upset about money so well spent. Since then, Jack and I have developed a great friendship and he has become a major inspiration to me.

Jack’s photos are dark and sexy and strong and vulnerable and violent and soft. Much of his work deals with extremes and polarizations; it’s these contrasts that make his work so captivating, and it’s what makes Jack as an artist so interesting. His 365 Days project—a self-portrait taken every day for a year—was 365 lessons in pushing the limits of creativity, resourcefulness, and intensity. His latest photos coming out of Japan show a new growth in terms of process and perspective. I recently got the opportunity to ask Jack some questions about his photography, life in Japan, and his future artistic endeavors. Ladies and Gentlemen, the very sexy, very talented, very manly, very honest, very fucking wonderful, Jack Scoresby.

I know photography is just one of your many talents; you also write and act and probably are capable of other things I am as of yet unaware of. Did you always have a creative drive? Or did your creativity click later in life? What sparked it?

It definitely clicked. I was in the 8th grade and had this huge crush on a girl named Kiley Rard. She was just perfect; brains, beauty, kindness, and a great sense of humor. Totally out of my league at the time, because I was still that kid that everyone made fun of. She was very nice to me though. I had always been a voracious reader, even as a child reading two novels a week usually, so I had ideas for things to write. She liked writing as well so to have something else to talk to her about I started writing poems and short stories and asking her to read them. She loved them, or at least said she did, and things sort of snowballed from there. She moved away at the end of that year, but I took Drama for four years in high school after that and continued writing for all of it. I briefly majored in film learning the technical side of things like lighting, sound, directing, finances, camera work, etc. I stayed involved in the theatre for a long time after high school as well. Eventually I got interested in photography because of how much I enjoyed the lighting class at college and because an ex-girlfriend of mine modeled for some private photos for me at my birthday party, which I thought turned out pretty decent. I thought I might be good at that too. But bringing this answer back to the original question, I think everything I do that’s artistic can be traced back to Kiley for giving me the initial motivation and resulting confidence in my creativity and imagination. I always had the imagination, but she focused it and gave me pride in showing it off.

In many of your 365 photos, you seemed to find yourself defending the content of your photos – specifically concerning how you portray women. What did you think of this reaction, and did it change your way of thinking about your photography in anyway?

A majority of the women I photograph are close friends of mine, so that’s probably why I defend the content when it concerns them. I don’t use sexuality as a prominent theme very often I don’t think, besides my pinup work. I used nudity even less. It offends me when people see something in my photos I didn’t put there, then they attack me for it. I realize that any photo will be only about 20% of the whole idea someone forms when they view it, but that’s also the reason it bothers me. I have never photographed any woman in a way they were uncomfortable with and I have never presented women as anything but beautiful and/or powerful figures in my art. So when someone says it’s porn or it’s degrading, it’s insulting. It’s like they’re calling me a liar. I present something with my work, and the viewer does the rest of the imagination. That’s with any art. I don’t feel I should be vilified when they imagine something into it that I didn’t put there then get offended by it.

Initially it did change the way I viewed my photography, but as I explored and developed more it began to bother me less, especially as I learned more about the photographer/audience relationship. Often I find that when I’m in disagreement with someone over the content of my work, be it sexuality or violence or anything else, that person does far less to understand it than I do to understand their work or why they feel the way they do. Ultimately it’s made me imagine things differently, but controversy is a reaction like any other, and as an artist a reaction is what I strive for be it positive or negative. I think the positive feedback I receive is usually much better constructed and from much more accomplished and artistic people than the negative, even from artists who don’t explore sexuality and violence at all. I’m of the opinion now that I’m generally more mature and more open to art and the world than the people who tell me my work is irresponsible or offensive. It’s almost become it’s own unique compliment now to be insulted by people who I don’t have anything in common with anyway. It’s like I’m doing something right.

One of my favourite things about your photography is the contradictions in how you portray yourself – and to an extent your subjects. One day you can be a crazy killer, the next a vulnerable man, the next a goofy playboy king of hot women. What compels you to portray so many different characters and emotions in your work?

Escapism. I like to wear different hats, and I like to remake myself sometimes. It’s a persona/personality thing, where the personality is how you are, and the persona is what you want people to see you as. Sometimes I like to be me, but a lot of times I like to be something else for a little bit. It’s very interesting to look at a photo of yourself being something you’re not, or doing something you never did. It’s like looking into another world because there you are in living color doing it, but it wasn’t real. I’m not violent or a playboy by any means, but sometimes I like to see what it’d be like if I was. The theatre background probably doesn’t hurt either, and I do tend to view a lot of my photos as pieces of a story. Many photos I take I think are actually the moment right before, or the moment after the real moment the photo is about. I like people to imagine for themselves what came before, or what happens next, and make a story that way. To do that the people in my photos (be them myself or others) are playing characters and roles to communicate that. It’s all a play on emotion and trying to get people to feel certain ones. Ultimately it all comes from me, and I’m a little bit of everything in my photos, but the photos are all extremes and exaggerations built on truth, but in the end it’s just theatre.

I know you are an excellent writer, but maybe not everyone does. Are you going to try to pursue this further, or at least maybe show the world a little more of your stories?

I am actually currently working on a novel. Hopefully a trilogy. I’m not going to say too much about it besides it’s a science fiction/fantasy story. As far as writing goes that’s where my main focus will be for a while. I’ll continue to write short stories but probably won’t do anything public with them until I’ve accumulated enough. I have no idea what amount “enough” will be, but at that point I might find a place online to put them and make them public.

Since you were deployed to Japan (being in the Navy and all), how has your creative view changed, if at all?

So far it’s definitely expanded my creative view. I mean how could it not? I get to see things I’ve never seen before, and familiar things have a new tint in the lense when I look at them again. I want to get a little more real with my photos, but still keep all that theatre I was talking about earlier. Maybe move from doing plays to doing films if that makes sense. I want to stop using stages in the form of studios and backdrops and I want to shoot on location. I want to start making the stories the photos tell more real in that respect.

One thing I’ve been interested in doing here, and will be starting soon is documenting the homeless in Japan. The class difference is really interesting in a very sad way, and to see the haves and have-nots in such close proximity in such an advanced and flourishing place such as Shibuya for example is something I really think everyone should see.

Have you found new inspirations in Japan that you would never have thought of back in America?

I accidentally answered part of this already with the homeless idea, but there’s a lot of other things on my mind as well. I want to go more into the modern culture here that’s unique to Japan first and foremost, but on a more general scale I want to do more urban work and a lot more with available and natural light. Being from Oklahoma, a lot of how dense and populated it is here is very new and beautiful to me. I want to capture that as I see it while I’m here. I have a love for the cities here and how busy things are on a constant basis. And again, the culture here is fascinating. I want to remember it and I want it to be remembered, so I’m looking to incorporate it in my work while I’m here.

Since I met you online, I think it’s appropriate to have an Internet question. Tell me how the Internet has affected you and the development of your art?

It’s had a huge affect. I mentioned I’m a theatre geek, and as such I enjoy attention, so the Internet has given me a large audience to show my work to. Not only that, but it’s given me an audience of people who I can pay attention to, and appreciate, and learn about. It’s helped me grow in so many ways, both imaginatively, and in just how many people know me for my work. I’ve made some great friends online who are both artists and passionate about the same things I am, and I think that’s a really amazing thing to be able to share with those people. The Internet has given me feedback and a spider web of connections to friends and inspirations that have made me a hundred times more creative than I ever was. The audience it’s provided me also gives me the motivation to continue doing photography and to continue to love doing it, because what artist wants to perform for an empty house?

So many people use pseudonym’s online, or pen names associated with their work. Jack Scoresby is not your real name. Why create the distinction between Jack and Jacob?

A lot of people ask me sometimes if Jack and Jacob are two separate people. I’ve even had people ask me if certain photos are of Jack and others of Jacob. I’ve always kind of thought that was ridiculous. Jack Scoresby is a pen name of mine of course, and I’ve considered it a character as well. I think the best explanation comes from an earlier answer where I mentioned the personality and persona. Jack Scoresby is my persona. Jack is me as I like to be seen, but Jack is still me in every way. Every photo I take of myself is of Jack Scoresby, and it’s also of me. There’s not really a distinction between the two. As to why I’d create another name to go by, Jack Scoresby comes from two different names. Jack London, my favorite author, and Lee Scoresby, a character from my favorite story. I think it suits me and my feelings at times, and its origin is a homage to artists and art that I enjoy. I thought it would be a fine name to go by when making art of my own. I think if there is a distinction to be made, then it only goes as far as persona/personality. Jack is just the hat I wear when I’m creating things.

And now I’m going to steal a question from Justin Holt from when he interviewed me, because it was a good one. A hypothetical: Someone comes across your photo stream – what do you want them to get from your photography?

Honestly I’m not looking for the audience to get anything. I’m selfish and I want something from them. I want a reaction. I want them to feel something, to have a mental or emotional response to my work that makes them form a new thought they never had before, or revisit a memory that’s powerful to them. I guess that’s what I’d want them to get; a new thought they never had before.

Who are some of your all time favourite photographers? Show us a photograph you’d wish you’d taken.

Besides you? I’ve never made it a secret you’re my favorite photographer. I might as well discredit this whole interview right here and now. I’m kidding. Anyway, a lot of my favorite photographers are from flickr. I’d say I’d have to mention Stephen Poff, Chad Coombs, J.R. Blackwell, Sable O’Driscoll, Mark Velasquez, Chad Michael Ward, Billy Bofh (A.K.A. MonkeyTwizzle), Chase Lisbon, Pilar Castro, Lars Venner, Rune T, Lauren Peralta and many others I’m sure. As for a photo I wish I’d taken, I feel I’ve never done enough when I’ve been around J.R. Blackwell, and she’s done some amazing work in the 365 days project she’s just completed. I think this shot is way up there on the “Shots I wish I’d taken” list.

What do you see for yourself as an artist in the future? More photography? Writing? Acting?

I’ll always be pursuing photography. I don’t think that will ever stop; though I also don’t think I’ll ever want to do it professionally. I want to write more and I am, and maybe someday I might be able to make a living at it. I’ll always be open to acting as well as I do enjoy being involved in the theatre and in film, despite a long absence from it. We’ll see how that pans out.

Realistically I know that being successful—enough money to make a comfortable living successful that is—isn’t likely in any of these fields, so I’ve decided to go to school and become a high-school drama teacher if all else fails, or even if it doesn’t fail. It’s something I think I would really enjoy and be good at, or else I wouldn’t bother trying to do it.

Basically no matter what I’m going to be involved in the arts somehow. I really don’t think it’s in me not to be. I’m not too sure on the specifics, but as long as I’m around I’ll be making something I’m going to want other people to see.

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Interviewee Jack Scoresby’s ever-evolving work can be found at flickr.

Interviewer Katie West is a Canadian photographer, writer, and all around creative soul.  Her first book, low self-esteem, was published in 2008