Exposing a Subject

Alumna Sharona Jacobs walks an unusual path to and through a career in photography

How do you choose a novel to read? It’s common to be drawn in by a striking cover or rave book review blurbs, but how about the author’s photo on the book jacket?

Alumna Sharona Jacobs is a photographer, dubbed “Boston’s literary portrait photographer,” specializing in character-driven portraits of the writers, thinkers and visionaries found on that “back flap.”

Sharona first hung her studio shingle in Arlington, Massachusetts, in 2011. Since then, the 1997 graduate of the College of Fine Arts has floated between the commercial, editorial and fine art worlds, aiming “to tell a visual story about both the book and author in a beautiful manner, inviting readers to get to know both them and their books better.”

Seeing Through a Family Lens

Sharona learned her craft early, taking studio photography classes at age 12. Her dad and grandfather were both avid photographers, and she remembers hovering with her sisters over the stereoscopic glass slides her grandfather took when he served as a captain in the tank corps of the British Army.

“This was a very interesting thing to grow up with, looking at history as seen by your family,” Sharona says.

She leaned on her artistic inclinations in college, co-founding the Photography Society at Carnegie Mellon. As a student in the School of Design, she loved the feeling of “creating something from nothing” and distinctly recalls the joy of being with others like her, calling the CMU experience her “own personal version of ‘Freaks and Geeks, a place that felt like coming home.’”

She met Jeremy, her husband, as a sophomore in an acting class for non-majors.

“My now-husband was studying robotic art and creative writing and graduated with a BFA in art,” she says. “Our first date was hanging out in the drawing studio at the top of CFA [Building]. It was very CMU.”

Developing a Depth of Field

After graduating with her Bachelor of Art degree, she moved to Rochester, New York, to work at the George Eastman Museum, where she was supported by incredible work and received a grounding in visual imagery.

“I learned a ton about the history of photography and interdisciplinary departments within the fine art environment,” she says.

Sharona moved on to design and marketing in Boston. While ultimately these positions were not a good fit, she acquired solid research skills and an understanding of the business landscape, skills she still uses. Her career trajectory pivoted yet again when she enrolled in a counseling psychology graduate degree program at Boston College.

That experience taught Sharona how to empathize with the subjects she photographs, who can often be uncomfortable or even scared. In fact, Sharona makes it a point to get her own portrait taken on a yearly basis, in order to maintain those strong empathy skills.

“I am never going to approach someone with a camera or bright lights until we sit down and have a conversation,” Sharona says. “For me, I’m always going to be that psychotherapist at heart. I find the human psyche endlessly fascinating. I will never tire of doing portraits, because I get to hear human stories and then represent that author visually. How lucky am I?”

Getting to the Art of the Matter

Whether shooting a classic literary figure or a science fiction author, Sharona likes to make it fun and to humanize the process. She plays with black and white and color portrait versions; considers angles and wardrobe; and occasionally even includes other people or animals in order to best represent each writer and their books.

“It is as much about someone’s insides as their outside,” she says. “So much of these choices are based on their work. If I’m photographing a novelist who writes consistently about water, I’m going to bring water into the portrait as part of the aesthetic. There has to be a reason or a story or a rationale, even if it’s subtle.”

One of her favorites was shot on location at a castle with young adult fantasy novelist Holly Black.

“Literary fiction portraiture, which I tend to do, is more classic in technique. When I get to shoot genre people — particularly fantasy/sci-fi, crime, speculative fiction — it’s really fun technically because I get to play with light and drama,” she explains. “One great thing about being a CMU grad is that we don’t get scared of changing technology or trying new things.”

Focusing on the Subject

Her favorite shoots are very collaborative and occur when Sharona feels she’s gotten her photographic subject particularly comfortable. She jokes that she mainly takes photos of people who hate to have their photos taken.

“Most writers would rather get a root canal than be photographed. They generally prefer their writing to be their public face.” 

The challenge is to make people feel like they can trust their image in her hands in a short period of time.

“They need to feel as though you understand them — that you are in their corner and that you’re going to take great care of them,” she says. “That they’re going to get beautiful imagery and that, obviously, you're very thoughtful about them and their work. You want to represent them truly and accurately and beautifully.”

Sharona’s sessions with clients frequently involve the demystification of her job.

“Many people think there's a lot of mystery to what a portrait photographer does, but it is a skill to have your photo taken,” she says. “Everyone is photogenic but most people — especially introverts — just don’t know what to do. Being in front of a camera doesn’t mean you automatically know what to do. It is my job to explain and humanize the process to give each subject agency over the imagery that represents them.”