SJFAM: Tell us about yourself…
Josh: I’m 30. A photographer and writer. I am the 4th generation of my family to live in San Jose. I majored in history at San Jose State University. I have been taking pictures of San Jose for eight years now.I started with a disposable camera. Then I went through a series of 35mm cameras that only marginally improved in quality with each purchase. I bought film when I could afford it and watched a lot of things pass on while my camera sat empty at home. I saved up enough money to buy a display model digital SLR camera and started to furiously document all I could. With the exception of the “Intro to Photography” class I took in high school, I am self taught. My father had a weekend photography business. Our garage was a studio and our laundry room was a dark room. I grew up watching what he did and was fascinated.
SJFAM: What inspires you?
Josh: History and a hope to connect to the past. I mowed my grandfather’s lawn every weekend from middle school until college and my grandfather would tell me the history of San Jose. He would drive me to places and tell me what used to be there or what it was like when he was young. When I started at San Jose State, I would wander the streets of downtown trying to piece together what my grandfather told me. There was so much that was empty and so much being lost and no one seemed to notice. I started by writing about what was being lost, then I started to photograph it.
SJFAM: What message do you portray in your work?
Josh: I try to show the soul and the character of the places and things I see in San Jose and the places I travel. Buildings and cars and signs are designed and born. They absorb life and soul from the people that worked or lived or shopped around them. When they become empty they start to die and the decay spreads like cancer. I try to portray their soul one last time in my photos.
SJFAM: What is your favorite picture that you’ve taken so far and why?
Josh: My favorite picture is one titled Dead. It was a picture of a car left on the train tracks by my home. It was the first photo I took where I felt like what I was trying to portray in my mind was being translated into the photo.
SJFAM: What are your goals as a photographer?
Josh: My goal is to show people what I see.
SJFAM: Any words to the people of San Jose?
Josh: San Jose is a great place. Enjoy it.
Josh Marcotte’s First Solo Show will take place on Feb. 6, 2010 at the Blues Jean Bar in Santana Row. Click here for more information
Also to see more of Josh’s work, check out his site at www.lostsanjose.com.