I’m trying to decide if the phrase “contemporary old school” is a clever oxymoron or not. It’s the phrase that struck me when I started interviewing Jenna Kraczek about her stunning and unique photography. Stylistically Kraczek has managed to veer away from the pack by putting a modern-day spin on classic glamour photography. Think George Hurrell from the forties combined with a little Herb Ritts and splash of Albert Watson. The blend is effective, compelling and shocking considering that Kraczek has only been shooting for a few years. When I sat down with her for this article, I discovered that her road to being a photographer was a more of a mythic journey than a walk in the garden. It all started with some paper and a charcoal.
Kraczek’s introduction to the visual arts started with her mother who was an artist. It was the exposure to her mother’s work at a young age that inspired her to pursue drawing and painting in college. Unknown to her at the time, Kraczek’s embrace of charcoal on paper as her favorite medium was heavily influenced by her love of black and white photography. Especially images with simple composition and pronounced light and shadow.
After Kraczek graduated from college with her art degree, she had to find a career path that would enable her to make a living quickly. Jenna’s attraction to glamour led her to beauty school which could get her working soon after she finished the program. Once again she didn’t realize that she was pursuing yet another path that was one of the parts of the whole of her photography calling.
Because of her very young exposure to painting, Kraczek excelled at color theory and trained to be a colorist. Her last year in beauty school she was part of hair competition in which she also did the makeup on the models. Out of nowhere she ended up winning an award for her makeup and not the hair. For Kraczek it was a wake up call. She loved doing makeup.
As she planned a course to makeup school, she also constantly practiced the craft. Weddings, editorial, short films, some-budget projects, no-budget projects, she didn’t care, she just wanted to practice her passion for painting faces.
Eventually her need to work as a makeup artist outweighed the frequency of opportunities that were available in which she could be highly creative. Kraczek was working with “Model Mayhem” photographers. Not surpassingly the work she was asked to do was pedestrian in concept, or the photography was so dreadful that it failed to showcase her work. So she opted to practice her concepts herself and shoot her own pictures to record the work. It was one of those epic moments like when you see a lighting strike, or the green flash right before the sun dips below the horizon.
Using herself as a model, a few spotlights from Office Depot, and a point-and-shoot camera, Kraczek had come to the end of a journey and found that photography was her true passion. Or as she describes it “her vice.” She began shooting friends, neighbors, and eventually models. Of course doing her own makeup and hair.
As her portfolio started bulking up she began getting noticed. First it was a few small projects, and then a few editorial spreads. Her arrival as a pro came recently when she started getting calls from Hollywood to bid on jobs that engaged her specific style. Yes, there is a reason I’m being vague. The projects are under the hush hush of NDAs at the moment.
Kraczek’s work is extraordinary to look at, not only for its aesthetic beauty, but also for inspiration. Her site is one that I have bookmarked, and check in with often just to see what she’s conjured up lately.
Jenna Kraczek’s career reads like an epic journey where the hero goes through life picking up the required skills that she’ll need to pursue her ultimate destiny. Ironically, in Kraczek’s case, it’s the destiny she would have never discovered had she not travelled the odyssey that she did.
More of Jenna Kraczek’s work can be seen in her site Jenna Kraczek Photography.
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