Slide Show: Northwest Exposure
Rain City raconteur Photographer Chase Jarvis tells us the tales behind his Seattle 100 project.
Photography by Chase Jarvis
BLUE SCHOLARS Hip-Hop Trailblazers
“I was photographing while we were talking and I remember having incredibly deep discussions about hip-hop culture, specifically in Seattle. We talked for so long that I had them stand up after a while. And I just ripped off like 20 pictures. You can see here, I think, MC Geologic [right] is bored in between shots, and he’s like, okay, let’s get to the next shot. And DJ Sabzi is walking to get in a different position. It’s those off moments that really count.”
Photography by Chase Jarvis
CLIFF McCRATH Second Winningest Soccer Coach in NCAA History
“I went to this man’s soccer camp when I was in third grade, up on Whidbey Island. He calls himself Uncle Nubby, and he has an amazing story about growing up as an impoverished kid in Detroit—soccer was his way out of the city. I don’t know the story of how he blew off his fingers with dynamite, but during the photo session I asked, ‘Have you ever posed for a picture with the nub?’ And this was the face that he gave me. It was like, ‘What do you mean? Of course, I fucking pose with my blown off fingers!’ ”
Photography by Chase Jarvis
JEREMY FABER Mushroom Forager
“He’s filthy because he’s just come in from weeks in the Montana woods walking around burned forests collecting mushrooms. And he’s got char marks on him. He’s just filthy. His van was parked outside—a shitty van full of backpacks full of mushrooms. I pinched myself. I was like, He literally came in out of the woods and onto my seamless.”
Photography by Chase Jarvis
LINDA DERSCHANG Owner of Linda’s Tavern, Oddfellows Café, Smith, and King’s Hardware
“Linda brought an amazing array of clothes. She genuinely enjoyed being photographed. I really gravitate towards people like that. We had a stylist for this particular day, and she was really open to being styled. She was probably in the styling chair for maybe 30 minutes, and getting her hair done, and loving every minute of it. And she changed clothes four or five times. I think it’s the culture maven in her.”
Photography by Chase Jarvis
LYNN SHELTON Director of Humpday and a Recent Episode of Mad Men
“Lynn was amazing to photograph. She’s supercharismatic, but somewhat shy. At some point she just started dancing. It was like, Wait a minute. There was this complete transformation. And it’s kind of like this trust that was built between us. I think she was up for the Spirit Award, and then she had just found out she’d won it.”
Photography by Chase Jarvis
JAMES KEBLAS Director of the Mayor’s Office of Film and Music
“An incredibly well-spoken gentleman. And he loves his manhattans—we had several manhattans. And he’s a scooter rider—those are his scooter goggles. I love that he wears a kickass suit. There’s a funny tongue-in-cheek sophistication, and to me that’s very Seattle. The goggles are fuck you. And the suit is I can fit in.”
Photography by Chase Jarvis
LAURA KELLEY-JAHN Poetry-Slam Artist
“I couldn’t take a bad picture of her. And she’s very proud of her wardrobe. So much vintage clothing. And everything had a story—like it would be a 10 minute monologue. It’s not a scarf. ‘It’s a scarf that I bought on a spring day after I listened to poetry.’ And again, anybody could have pointed a camera at her and it would have been beautiful.”
Photography by Chase Jarvis
THE ATOMIC BOMBSHELLS Burlesque Dancers
“Anytime seven burlesque women walk into your studio and take off all their clothes, it causes a stir. And we’re handing them champagne and they’re drinking. I have photos that actually reveal private parts, but we had to choose the one where the feather is very clearly over the right part. Completely impromptu, one woman picked up another and the legs fell open. Maybe it’s a move they do, but I saw it and was just like, That’s a moment!”
Photography by Chase Jarvis
THE BLAKES Rock Musicians
“These guys rolled in and were like, ‘Yeah, we’ve got five minutes dude, hurry up and get this done.’ I fed them a couple cocktails and lunch arrived, and the shoot went on until probably 3 in the morning. I was enamored by the holes in the soles of their shoes, so they started leaning back to show me, and it’s like the guy on the left forgot and leaned back too far. And there’s what Henri Cartier-Bresson called ‘the decisive moment’ of a photograph, where he’s milliseconds away from falling into the seamless and tearing it down. It tells a wonderful story.”
Photography by Chase Jarvis
SHERMAN ALEXIE National Book Award winner and author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian
“This is the part of Sherman that I love, when he’s absolutely bursting with laughter. He’s so dynamic. He went very, very serious to completely emotional, exuberant outbursts of laughter and joy. And he seemed to move back and forth between those things.”
Photography by Chase Jarvis
Photography by Chase Jarvis
ANGELA AND ETHAN STOWELL Restaurateurs, owners of Anchovies & Olives, How To Cook A Wolf, Tavolàta, and Staple & Fancy Mercantile
“I think Ethan was late and he rode his scooter rode right into the studio. I was like, perfect, keep driving. They rode over to the seamless. It was fun to photograph a couple because they were goosing each other and being really coy.”
Photography by Chase Jarvis
Photography by Chase Jarvis
MOLLY MOON Owner of Molly Moon’s Handmade Ice Cream Shop
“She brought in ice cream for everyone and she was enjoying her own cone when I said, Sit down. And she was like, What? But we haven’t even —and I was like, Sit down. And I began clicking away at her with her ice cream and with her dog milling about her feet.”
Photography by Chase Jarvis
Photography by Chase Jarvis
Preview more images from Chase Jarvis’s Seattle 100.
Photography by Chase Jarvis
