Lens Crafters: Stephan Jende and the Layers of His Photography

There are few people more enjoyable to work with taking photos at an event than Stephan Jende. Hailing from the street paradise of Minnesota, Jende grew up not only deeply rooted in snowboarding, but also immersed in working collaboratively with everyone around him, riders, filmers, and photographers. While much of Jende's winter is spent ushering crews around the streets of his home and snapping images at iconic spots he grew up watching in movies, he is also a regular on the event scene, from traveling with Snowboy Productions to shooting contests like Red Bull Heavy Metal and The Uninvited Invitational. In both settings, Jende's collaborative spirit shines. He is a guy you want on any session not only for his skill as a photographer, but for his calm-yet-focused demeanor and affable personality. With a creative perspective and an eye for technical and artistic detail, Jende's images are recognizable for their crisp action and layered perspective, as he is adept at finding a unique angle to highlight his subject matter anywhere he goes. - Mary T. Walsh

Name: Stephan Jende
Age: 35
Home Mountain: Trollhaugen, Wisconsin
Hometown: White Bear Lake, Minnesota
Years snowboarding: 26?
Years shooting photos: 20
Gear: Canon R5

Website: www.jendephoto.com
Instagram: @JendePhoto

How did you get introduced to snowboarding and likewise, photography?
I don’t recall the first time snowboarding, but it definitely was when I was in elementary school. Someone had one of those shitty, plastic, tie dye snowboards from Target or Walmart that you couldn’t actually do anything other than go straight down the hill.

I have always been around photography. My grandpa was a photographer. He had a darkroom at his house and my dad always had cameras. The first time I truly remember taking photos was middle school with a point-and-shoot. And then freshman year of high school, I took a graphics class which had photography as part of it and we learned to develop our own film and make prints in the darkroom.

Being from Minnesota, which is so rich in street snowboarding, how has this affected your perspective and experience as a photographer?
I naturally gravitated towards photographing street because it was so accessible. Growing up, looking at mags and seeing street shots and then seeing that they were in Minnesota made it feel more obtainable to be involved in the industry without having to move West.

Who are some of the riders and photographers you looked up to when you were growing up?
I grew up in the Forum 8 era. First video I ever saw was Resistance . When I really started to pay attention, I loved watching Chad Otterstrom. He has also played a big role. Still rips today but also is an amazing photographer. So many photographers to list but some are Blotto, Andy Wright, Cole Barash, Aaron Dodds, Tim Zimmerman, Chris Wellhausen, E-Stone, Ian Ruther, and Cole Martin. There are so many more, but those are the ones that definitely left an impression on me.

What do you think is the most iconic Midwest street spot when it comes to photos?
That’s a tough question. For me it’s probably Tilsner, which was right in downtown St. Paul. It isn’t there now, but it’s the spot where Jeremy Jones did the one-footed shuvit redirects and JP Walker did flip redirects. There is a gap over to a blind ledge that everyone hit that I remember seeing photos of. I don’t know if that is the most famous to anyone else, but that’s probably the one I remember the most.

You’ve photographed so many different riders in the streets when they come to Minnesota while filming. What is it like to collaborate with such a variety of riders on such a variety of projects?
It is honestly amazing and I am forever grateful to any filmer or rider who has hit me up to come and photograph with them. Each person is different and you kind of just have to go with the flow.

What has been a really memorable trick, image or session you recall shooting?
A few years back I got to shoot with Mikey LeBlanc at this gap just outside downtown Minneapolis on the Mississippi and hang at spots for a few days with him. Young me never would’ve thought I have that opportunity.

List five things you always bring with you to shoot in the streets.

• Camera Bag with everything in it, hopefully. Haha.
• strobes kit (light stands, transceivers, reflectors)
• shovel
• snacks and in my later years that has included hot cider
• phone (need directions), keys, and wallet

Few more than five.

Do you have any tricks to keep your fingers warm while shooting in freezing temperatures?
Honestly, I don’t. Haha. I have gotten pretty used to the cold growing up in MN. I typically will wear the light liner gloves you get with mitts and then I have some lightweight Mountain Hardware fleece-lined fingerless mittens that the mitt part flips up and tucks into the top of the glove, and I'll wear that with the liner. I don't know if they make them anymore, but if anyone has plug, let me know because mine are beat up.

Your also spend much of the winter on the road at events. You go on the Snowboy World Tour and regularly shoot contests, including Red Bull Heavy Metal and The Uninvited Invitational. What do you enjoy about taking photos at events?
Events are fun, but also can be stressful. Usually there is a fair amount of media and everyone is trying to find different angles to shoot the same thing. So it’s always rad to see how different the photos from everyone ends up being while we are all photographing the same 10 features. That part is cool. It pushes you to find new ways to document something. Probably my favorite part is getting to see friends who live all over the world and make new friends. That, to me, is as fun as photographing the event.

What are five things you always bring on the road with you when traveling for events (outside of your camera gear)?
It’s going to seem like more than five.

• Travel wallet. This is one thing because even at home it stays all together (passport, spare phone charger, sleeping mask, headphones, extra bag tags).
• Roku stick. You never know what the TV situation is like.
• snacks
• spare beanie
• glasses

With Snowboy events in particular (though this extends to your style in general, of course), you utilize layering different foreground elements in your photos to really make areas of wide open resort trail pop with interest and focus. How did you develop this perspective and style?
I think a big part of it comes from when I was in college in downtown Minneapolis at the now defunct Art Institute. Just being around all these buildings, I gravitated to taking photos where they were overlapping each other and almost creating an abstract composition. So, when I started photographing events where there was always other stuff happening, either in the foreground or background, I wanted to incorporate that into my photos. I am also kind of an introvert until I really meet someone and when I first started photographing events I didn’t know a lot of people, so shooting long lens meant I didn't have to interact as much with someone and I could just document what was happening. In addition, what the builders do is an art form and I want to showcase that in my photos.

Tell us a little bit about taking photos at events verses taking them in the streets. Obviously, they’re quite different scenarios. What’s the process like for you in both situations?
Street is usually a much slower pace. I always try and help get the spot set up with the crew and then look for my angle, and while I am doing that I am thinking where strobes will be. The goal is to get one banger shot and maybe a few other angles if the rider hits it a few times. But you have to be really on point, since you may only get one shot on it if the rider lands it first try and it is gnarly to do a second. It can be stressful. Hopefully all the flashes pop. Strobes have gotten a lot better. Anyone who has used pocket wizards knows what I am talking about.

Events can be chaotic. Especially at ones where drops aren't controlled and you have no clue where riders are going. You very much have to be looking out the corner of your eye when photographing them, especially if you are in an area where someone might ride through. But that is also what makes them so fun, just seeing everyone lap. I catch myself just watching sometimes to really take it all in.

Do you have any aspirations to get into the backcountry?
I do! It’s been a long time coming but I think next season is the season I want to get my toes wet. Living in MN makes it tough and it’s definitely an investment, but I really want to.

You made the switch over to mirrorless. What made you decide to switch and what do you like (and dislike, if anything) about shooting mirrorless?
I did! I am going to be honest, I was very hesitant to do so. Growing up using an SLR then a DSLR, I really liked looking through the lens vs an EVF, but it has won me over. Focusing is stellar. The exposure simulation in the EVF is amazing, especially shooting snowboarding where you run the risk of blowing out the snow. Endless focusing points are nice. The R5 shoots 20fps, full raw, 40 megapixel files with the electronic shutter. Camera is much smaller than a DSLR, but I will say I miss the sound of the mirror of a DSLR.

Who are some of your favorite photographers (in and out of the snowboard industry)?
I really like surf and adventure photographers and these are just some that come to mind. Chris Burkard, Jimmy Chin, Clark Little, Zak Noyle, Morgan Maassen, Ben Thouard. Other snowboard photographers would be Cole Martin, Liam Glass, Andrew Miller, Ashley Rosemeyer, Mary Walsh, and T. Bird.

What inspires you outside of photography?
People. Honestly there are so many people that I have had the chance to meet and then see what they are doing. Sometimes for how toxic social media can be there is the flip side of it and it can be inspiring. Whether it is friends or not, but seeing people push their limits inspires me to push myself. For example, someone like Taylor Elliott. She truly an inspiration.

Give us your top two Instagram accounts that you would recommend follow.

@budfawcett . I love seeing those older years of snowboarding that I didn’t get a chance to witness in person.

@davidyarrow . Amazing wildlife/fashion photographer. Love all the black and white work he does.

How do you think Instagram and social media have shaped what it means to be a professional photographer compared to ten or fifteen years ago?
As someone who kind of saw the tail end of the days pre-social media, it has been interesting to say the least. There are a lot of photos out there nowadays. Everything is so heavily video-shaped, to the point where people are making reels with their photos to get traction. It’s kind of like the endless abyss. It slowly sinks to the bottom and sometimes stuff stays afloat longer, but in the end it disappears. I liked it in the early days where those felt more like blogs, rather than now where if you aren’t posting daily you become lost in the algorithm. That’s a really short answer. I feel like we could talk for hours about it.

The media landscape (overall, not just in snowboarding) is so digital-centric right now, and though there are awesome coffee table books, zines, and mags, it’s very much just constantly changing, which affects the role of photographers, opportunities, work, etc. How do you make it work as a photog and on a positive note, what makes you excited about the current state of media?
There are so many different avenues we could go down with this question. But the short one is I love all the mags. I wish there were more around still printing because that’s what we grew up looking at and aspiring to be in, whether you were a rider or a photog. Obviously, now there are a lot fewer because everything is so digital. Now because of that it means a lot more if you get a photo in a mag.

You've shot with the best of the best. That being said, who are some of the new talent that you are stoked on snapping photos of these days?
Evan Riddell and Owen Cline are two younger kids that I had the chance to meet this year at a lot of different events that has been fun seeing them rip. It’s been rad to see the progression on the female side as well. Egan Wint, Iris Pham, Grace Warner, Jaylen Hansen, and those are just a few. There are so many up and comers on that side. I think most of them have been known for a few seasons now, but I have more recently had the chance to work with them more.

If you had never picked up a camera, what would you see yourself doing?
I wanted to play soccer in college but didn’t have the grades/test scores to get into the schools I wanted to play and if I did, who knows where I’d be. But because of that I decided to go to art school and was debating culinary school or majoring in graphic design. Ultimately, I decided on photography. So who knows, maybe I could have been a chef at some fancy restaurant or Draplin (very, very unlikely), haha.

What would be some good advice to any of the younger up-and-coming photogs out there reading this?
Learn the basics. Everything from how your camera works to little things in Photoshop and Lightroom, and then start adding on, whether that is using strobes, filters, and so on. It’s kind of like snowboarding in which a lot of kids skip learning how to do simple tricks because all they want to do is big spins.

Don’t be afraid to reach out to photographers over social for advice or critique. I try to respond to as many of those as possible and I am sure others would, as well. And if you ask for a critique/advice, don't get bummed when they don’t just tell you your photo is amazing and they give you constructive criticism.

Don’t get into it with the sole purpose of making money. I think if you do anything like that, eventually you’ll end up jaded and ultimately stop doing it.

For more of Stephan Jende's photography, follow @jendephoto on Instagram.