Meet Jordan Thompkins: Photographer

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

Hi Jordan, why did you pursue a creative career?
I knew from a pretty young age that I didn’t want a “regular” job. Growing up I only cared to pursue hobbies and activities that allowed me to be creative; whether it was building dioramas when I was 9, shooting “short films” at 11, writing my own comics at 13, or when I finally picked up photography at 14, creating has always brought me so much joy. So when it came time to choose a career path, I went with the obvious 

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?

Nostalgia is a big piece of my work. Being able to have someone look at a photo of a person they’ve never met or a place they’ve never been to and feel a sense of familiarity or longing is pretty powerful. I feel like that means you’ve really embedded that special “something” into a photo and is what allows great art to transcend generations. I believe that what helps to set me apart as an artist is my comfortability with working solely off of artist intuition.  The biggest lesson I’ve learned as an artist and creative along the way is that it’s okay to not have your “creative process” fully hashed out. Creativity is an enigma. It’s not a switch that you can just flip on or a map that you can follow; it can be daunting and convoluted and you may not always understand why you make the choices you do as an artist. However, the important thing to remember is that you’re no less of an artist because of it.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m going to pretend that COVID is long behind us to answer this one haha, but the first place I’d suggest is Jack’s Pizza & Wings. Jack’s is one of my favorite dive bars in Atlanta. I spent many Monday nights there for half priced wings and shots my senior year of college. The food is great, the staff is super friendly and the crowd is always good (the juke box has a great song library too). I’d also suggest taking a drive out to the East Palisades trail. It’s a bit of a hike once you get there but at the end of the trail is a huge bamboo forest that’s runs along side the river. It’s truly a site to see and it’s only 20 minutes outside of the city!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I owe so much of where I am today to my mother. She’s always nurtured my creative spirit and its given me so much of the confidence and courage needed to pursue a career in the arts. When I wanted to do art classes, she didn’t hesitate to enroll me. She never stopped me from bringing tracing paper and a picture book to school despite my teachers complaining that I didn’t need to be drawing during class. Those “short films” I was making at 11? She watched every single one. I can remember a doodle I drew on the wall at 4 still being there when I was 10 because she thought it was that cute. My mother has always recognized how special art was to me and so it was special to her too. I’m incredibly lucky to have had a parent that was and continues to be so supportive of what I love to do. I think I would’ve grown up to be pretty dull if it wasn’t for her

Website: https://jordanthompkins.myportfolio.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordan.thompkins/