I first met Jason about a year ago through Benny Gold and found he was easy going "goofy" guy and that he took photos, with an interest in using film and since then have followed him and his photos.
Earlier this week I met up with Jason to pick up a copy and we talked a bit about his trip and the zine.
Derek M: How would you describe yourself as a photographer? How does your demeanor translate to your attitudes and approach when you're taking photos?
Jason Y: I don't really think of myself as a photographer. I just enjoy taking photos. My approach to shooting something is usually when it's more "in the moment" I guess. I feel pretty comfortable asking strangers to shoot their photo, but it's a different feeling when you just shoot it from the hip or get the shot in their worst moment haha.
DM: Is there any theme to Salam Sejahtera? Why did you decide on that to title the zine, what is it's significance in respect to your trip, the people, and your photos?
JY: Salam Sejahtera simply means greetings or peace and well being in Malaysian. I named it that because of the positive vibes we received from everybody.
DM: Why were you in Malaysia? What was your trip about? Who went, for how long, what did you guys do?
JY: I was in Malaysia for Kuala Lumpurs first big track bike event. It was pretty crazed, the government poured a lot of money into it to get it organized the way it was. They even had news casters there and everything. It was a huge turn out. Me and a couple team mates from Leader Bikes and Macaframa were flown out to ride bikes and participate in the events they had. The trip felt really short lived. We were only there for about 5 days and every day was a bike thing. There wasn't really much time to do touristy type stuff and check the country out more. But none the less we all had a good time being in a country we've never been before. Faz was one of the dudes that took care of us and couldn't have been a better host. I think he's even coming out here for the Red Bull event.
DM: Did you guys know anyone over there, where did you stay?
JY: We didn't know anyone personally, we just knew of them through facebook
and have kind of been getting in contact with each other that way. I met a bunch of my international team mates from Leader and they're all awesome dudes - Faz, Rudy, Ippe, and a bunch of other people. We stayed in KL at a hotel the organization booked us at.
DM: What is your first time visiting Malaysia and the other places you visited while there? What were your expectations before the trip, what experiences did you anticipate?
JY: It was my first time there. I really didn't know what to expect. But I really wanted to buy a bunch of crap from the black market. Fake iPhones n shit. Ate a bunch of interesting foods. I wanted to see more of the city out the bike stuff took up a lot of the time.
DM: Was there anything you weren't prepared for/didn't expect? Any culture shocks you experienced? Was there anything really new to you?
JY: It was so hot and humid out there. it was like mid 90 degree weather with rain sometimes. The out of towners were definitely not used to it at all. The people from there were so used to it I even saw some dude wearing a crew neck in that weather and not even tripping about it at all. I would be sitting down with my shirt off in the shade doing absolutely nothing and still sweating my ass off. Everything out there was new to me, there was so much to see and experience it's kind of hard to put into words. I
can tell you that traffic out there is pretty insane, they really don't give a fuck out there haha.
DM: In terms of quantity, how much were you photographing (number of roles of film)? How difficult or easy was it to decide on how much/what to include in Salam Sejahtera?
JY: I think I shot about 12 rolls? I brought 2 cameras with me just as a back up and it actually came in handy. on the 10 th roll or something my main camera crapped out. I was kinda bummed cuz it was a super rare one that's hard to find on ebay or even in working condition. It was kind of difficult picking the photos I wanted in the zine. I actually wanted to keep it less bike related as much as possible, and 3 days spent there was at a bike thing. But I think I gathered enough.
DM: What did you want to do with this zine? What did you want to show with it?
JY: I just to get it out in peoples hands. I kind of wanted to show the timeline I experienced and things I saw that you wouldn't normally see here in SF.
DM: What other things over there besides the people interested you?
JY: Just the way of life out there is totally different. It's hard to explain. One of the photos in the zine that explains it pretty well is the one I think is 2nd or 3rd to last page. It's the family of 3 riding on the scooter, no helmets, with the mom holding an infant in her arm. I saw tons of that kind of stuff and was blown away by it. Cars are super expensive out there so a lot of people resort to scooters. I even saw a family of 4 with the baby sitting in the front zipping through the freeway.
DM: You were prepared going with your cameras and film, did you have it in mind to make a zine out of your trip or when did you decide to make it, instead of just posting photos online like you normally do with your photos?
JY: I wanted to make sure I had enough film on me for that trip. And I did have in mind that I wanted to make a zine out of it. Once the zine gets out a little more I'll start uploading some photos from it.
DM: You recently created Extra Bigger, what's the story behind that? Why did you guys decide to do it? For you, what's it like having this platform and being on board with your friends?
JY: I just wanted a group of friends that shot photos to contribute to a tumblr. Simple as that. Lately the fan base has been growing. I don't know what it is but there's this photo of Kanin and his bike on there and it's got like 1700 notes on there. I guess it just has to get reblogged by the right person. The platform is as simple as it is. Upload whatever photo you like for people to see. That's about it.
DM: Even though you don't consider yourself a photographer, do you have future ambitions with photography? Any ideas, projects, other trips maybe? Or just whatever happens happens and as it comes you'll take it from there?
JY: I just kind of do it as it comes. I recently did that flannel shoot for my work at Benny Gold. It was my first time doing like a model/product shoot and I think it turned out great. Luckily my girlfriend was there to be a stylist. She's done stuff like that for photo shoots in the past. She's awesome.
There are a lot of components to Jason's photos that are similar to what we see these days from other film photographers like the candid perspective, but what is so stand out is definitely his comfortability with strangers so that his photos show another side of people's lives that many photographers don't capture, even when it comes to his photos of friends and life in SF. We can see the honesty, enjoyment, and positive emotions in the people and subjects from Jason.
Jason's Salam Sejahtera is a black and white 60 page print, a limited edition of 60 that you can get for $5 on the Extra Bigger Shop.
You can see other photos by Jason on his personal tumblr.
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