- If you've been in Memphis
during the past decade,
you've probably encountered
Jamie Harmon's work.
His mobile photo booth Amurica
has been a fixture at Memphis
social events,
but when the COVID-19 pandemic
shut down the city in 2020,
the photographer
developed a new project.
Instead of taking portraits
of people out on the town,
he took his camera to them.
This is A Conversation
with Jamie Harmon.
[upbeat music]
Hi, I'm Chris McCoy
from the Memphis Flyer
and we are here in Crosstown
Arts Gallery with Jamie Harmon.
Jamie, thank you so much
for joining us today.
- Thanks for having me.
- So I guess the first
question is about Amurica.
You have done this
photo booth for,
when did you start?
- It was January of 2011 was,
actually I purchased the camper,
the original camper
in December of 2010.
And then by the end
of February of 2011,
it was in its first round
of what it was gonna be
which I didn't know
what it was gonna be,
it was really just gonna be
a mobile portrait thing
for just a project.
It wasn't meant to
be what it is today.
It was definitely a very simple
something to do to roll around
and take weird
pictures of people.
- Okay, so why Amurica?
I don't know this,
I've always wondered--
- Oh yeah. This is a pretty,
it's a pretty decent story.
Actually, on one of the
first dates with my now wife,
Leah Keys, I don't know.
I had seen a Bank of
America sign laying behind
Tad Pierson's warehouse
home downtown,
and it was discarded and
we were, out on a date
and I probably was like, maybe
I was trying to show off.
I don't know.
I was like, yeah, I like to
scavenge things off the road.
And anyway, so I went
and I had been planning
on grabbing that sign to
do something with it.
This was before the photo
booth was even than a thing.
- It was, you know,
before it was a thing.
So I had that, I had taken
that it was discarded,
put it in my some
storage thing that I had.
And then when the
trailer was done,
I was with a friend of
mine, Sally Russell,
and she saw the sign
and was like, oh,
if you take the N from the
bank part and turn it upside
down, you have a U and
you can have Amurica.
And then we talked
about, you know,
what is the
definition of Amurica?
Like there's an Urban
Dictionary definition.
And then it all came together
with like the photo booth was
a trailer and it
was kind of the,
the Urban Dictionary said that
Amurica was the land of the
red, white, trash and blue.
So it was like,
oh, it's a trailer,
trailer trash, Amurica on
the side of a trailer.
And that's really, that was it.
That was all it was.
- And you decorated
the interior of these,
the Amurica photo booths.
'Cause there have been
several at this point, right?
- There's been two
that were mobile.
One was just destroyed by a
traffic accident six months ago
And that was the original
one, unfortunately.
But the second one
was built a few,
like a year and a half
later, so like 2012 probably.
And yeah, so my son and
I, who was 11 at the time,
he kind of, was just a
project for us to do together.
We stapled old pictures up and
then put the lights on it and
then it became a software
issue, which you know,
that came into being over
the next couple of years.
You know, like the
technology was there.
I mean, I have actually used
trailers for photography
since the early '90s.
I had a 1-hour photo lab
in an old camper in 1991 and
I would go to events,
shoot them on film,
go out to the
parking lot, process
and print the pictures
in an old '60s camper.
But back then, you couldn't
do what you can do today.
'Cause it was, digital allowed
it to go into the next mode.
- I think people who've
never done it have no idea
how much more convenient
digital is than film.
- Oh, man, yeah, yeah
for sure, for sure.
- The interior of these
photo booths were spectacular
and you had all kinds
of stuff in them.
Still do, you know?
I shouldn't say speak
of it in the past tense.
- Oh yeah. It still exists.
- Yeah. Yeah.
But, you put all kinds,
are you like a pack rat?
- Well, I think I have
a pretty decent rule
of if I'm not gonna use
it, I'll get rid of it.
But that was one of those things
where the trail, you know,
if I saw, I started collecting
weirder things in the,
you know, 2011 to
put inside the camper
and then, you know,
eventually you lose interest
in that kind of stuff.
So it's like, I don't really
seek out that stuff as much.
But you also develop a
reputation and people just start
giving it to you, you know?
Like if you like, oh you like
frog, you know, figurines.
If somebody thinks you like
those then every time they
travel, they're gonna
bring you one back.
So that stuff like
that happened,
which I really appreciated,
'cause it was nice to
have things that were,
were belong to people from
their childhood, even,
that were put in there.
If I was shooting their
wedding, they would be like,
I brought this for you to
keep in the photo booth.
Stuff like that.
So it, it just kind of, it
began a life of its own.
- So, and yeah, it does
have a life of its own.
These photographs are
all over social media.
You know, people go into parties
and they get their
picture taken at Amurica.
I've got three or
four, you know?
- Yeah. It was very
distinctive for,
it was definitely built for
social media at the time.
I mean in 2011,
I don't even think I was
on Instagram at that time.
It was around, but I just
wasn't using it, you know,
at the time.
And then I adapted of course,
and it was definitely a,
it became one of those
Memphis people have said,
it's like your
Memphis passport.
I mean over the
past 11 years now,
I mean the last two don't
really count cause it's kind of
been shut down,
but there's probably half
a million photos that I've
archived of people in there.
And people that were
like on their first date
and then I was at
their wedding and then
they're in there with their
kids and then so forth.
And of course there's
other, you know,
there's divorces as
well, but it's yeah.
The kids have grown up
with pictures in there.
So it's kind of
been a cool project.
I didn't know what,
I didn't know,
the first year when it
started getting some traction,
my instinct was to run from it.
I was like, this can't be,
I can't do this forever.
But then, you know, it,
it was all positive.
Everything became a,
it's only been positive
since it started, really.
- So you've been doing event
photography for a while.
Like that kind of
was your roots right?
- I started out actually
almost right outta high school,
photographing people that
rode the riverboats downtown,
the Memphis Queen
line riverboats.
And I would, it
had a Pentax film.
It was all film,
and I would process
and then run to the lab, which
was on Beale Street Landing,
which is no longer there,
and then bring the
pictures back to sell them.
And I did that for a
decade in the '90s.
So my 20s was, was
meant, was doing that.
So I really got
used to a camera.
And do, you know,
I didn't even have to
think about the metering.
It was just like,
I can look and know what to
do 'cause I was doing it all day
every day, same with printing
and processing color.
You know, I was using
machines that were 10,
that were over a decade old.
So in the '90s, that's where
I just became more of an
obsessive photographer
and just documented
everything 'cause it was easy.
I had access to all of the
machinery and all of the,
the film was cheap 'cause
I'd order it in bulk.
So really my obsession
of like this project
is over 800 images.
It was like 15 to 20 miniature
creative jobs per day.
Like every shoot was a new,
you've got 15 minutes to do it.
That's for later in the
conversation probably.
- Well let's go there.
- But it's connected,
you know, it's connected.
Like you just start something
when you're young and then you
never stop.
- The only other question
I have about that or
that seems to be important
is to me is like,
you just are so good
at shooting people.
And like, I mean some
photographers do landscapes,
some photographers do like,
very posed kind of stuff,
but you seem to thrive on
spontaneity and specifically
taking pictures
of people's faces.
I mean...
- Yeah. I think that took time.
In my 20s, I was not,
I was too intimidated
by approaching people.
You know, as you get older,
that becomes a little easier.
And I think it was just a
good natural progression
of my interests
when I was younger.
And then you get bored with
taking pictures of things
that are inanimate,
or finding things
or using props or
whatever they were
and only shooting
stuff of your family.
I mean, when you, you know,
it's easy to shoot
pictures of your family,
if they're into it
because you're with
them, it's close,
the intimidation
factor isn't there.
But I do like to work fast
because it doesn't allow me to
have to sit there and think
about what could go wrong.
Or the awkward silences
of what's next.
So I think it works
better for me to
be in a situation to where
let's just figure it out when
you get here, instead of
trying to pre-plan everything.
- Which brings us to
the, what do you call it?
Is this the quarantine project?
- You know, in the beginning
it was Quarantine Memphis,
but I wanted
Memphis to be first.
So now it's called
Memphis Quarantine.
- Well obviously March 2021
happens, the city shuts down.
Amurica is not
happening anymore.
- Yeah.
- So.
- Yeah, so that's, it
all started that we were,
everyone was sent home
here in Memphis from school
and most jobs on March 13th.
I think I was initially a
little panicked that I wasn't,
that I was gonna be stuck
at home because that was the
literal, you know, words
that were used, stay at home.
And then I started thinking
about the rules of like, well,
what are the rules?
Like, don't go to a
bar, don't go to church,
don't go to have a party.
Don't just, stay
away from crowds.
You can go to the park,
you can walk around,
you can talk to people,
people from 20 feet away
outdoors, it's perfectly fine.
But still the social norms
kind of still worried me
that if I start
taking these pictures,
am I gonna be
targeted, you know,
and canceled or whatever
you want to call it.
So I first started with
friends, Ryan Azada
and Maria Applegate were the
first people I called to say,
"Hey, can I just come
take your picture
through your windows?"
And just to give
me something to do.
And then after that I kind
of put it on reluctantly,
I put it on social
media thinking
it's either gonna backfire
or it's gonna keep me busy.
And we were all told,
yeah we'll shut
down for two weeks.
And then we can, you know,
so I was thinking it's
a two-week project.
So I was trying to get as many
in a day as I could for two
weeks because I knew
it was gonna end
or I thought it was gonna end.
And after that happened,
I was getting text messages
and messages from like five
different sources from emails
and Facebook and Instagram.
And that got outta hand.
I couldn't keep up with that.
So Leah, my wife, said,
"Look, let me take over
the organizing of it,"
because at that point
there were too many people
and she made a
Google signup sheet,
which then went almost
within weeks to 1200 people.
And then she organized them
all by zipcode and area.
So if I was going
to Germantown,
I needed like 15 people,
they were in the same area.
So I could just go from
one house to the other,
kinda like going to
the grocery store.
You don't want go to the produce
and then immediately to the
eggs and then back to the
produce, like plan it, right?
- Well that's how I act
in the grocery store.
Ideally, you shouldn't do that.
- Yeah. Yeah.
So I was, when I was
doing it, I was like,
oh yeah, I'm driving
to Collierville
and then I'd have
someone downtown.
I was like, I can't,
that's too much driving
and that's not efficient.
So she broke it down and did
the schedule for two months.
And it was like, I would,
she would just put it in a
Google map and I'd open my phone
and there would be a
list of people there,
and I would just go
one after the other.
So I could just
focus on showing up,
doing the job and going to the
next one and then sitting and
editing for six hours
at the end of the day.
So it was, we didn't have
that many rain days either.
So it was almost every
day for, you know,
two and a half months, a little
over two and a half months.
- See, that's my memory of
the beginning of the pandemic
is how beautiful
the weather was.
- It was beautiful
until the end of May.
- Yeah. I was like,
it feels like it should
be storming outside
or something like
there should be
some visible like
manifestation of all this.
- Yeah. That was a
great, that really helped
because my vehicle is
not air conditioned.
So driving around all
day would've been brutal
if it would've
gotten into the 90s
in the beginning of May.
By June 8th, it was hot, and
that was one of the factors.
It was like, yeah, I gotta stop.
It's just too much.
- Yeah. So all these
pictures were taken
between March and...
- Between March 13th
and June 8th,
June 8th was the
last one that I shot.
And then it still took me
another 25 days to edit
because I wasn't able to keep up
with the editing of every day.
I couldn't shoot and
edit those the same day.
And by the time I stopped,
like early May still
hadn't even been looked at.
So I had a month
of editing to do.
And so I was finished
totally with that
by the first week
of July probably
and then every single family
or person and dwelling
that I showed up to, I
would send them a link
with their images
that were edited
so they could have those to
do what they wanted with.
So like every single 830 of
those is all a separate link and
all a, you know, a private
thing for them to have
'cause it was,
there was no charge.
Didn't even want to really
talk about money because I,
we wanted it, when I talked
to Leah about it a lot to just
brainstorm it.
And she was like,
it needs to be equitable.
You know, like it
doesn't need to,
you don't need to feel like it
is something that you have
to purchase, like a private
setting of a photographer.
It needed to be, like
any, just sign up.
It's just something
for all of us to do.
And many people did donate money
to keep things going,
which was wonderful.
And I appreciate
all of those people,
but I never discussed it
just because there
were so many people
that were trying to figure
out even how to navigate the
government assistance system
and all of those things.
- So you said you did about 800?
- It was about 833, I think,
was the total
number by June 8th.
- Wow.
And yeah, and it was also
15-minute conversations
with 830 people over
those first 2 months.
So it was a really
great perspective of
trying to figure out
what is gonna happen.
So I wasn't really paying
attention to those conversations
until May, and then it
all became clear that, oh,
this is gonna be
the best we get.
Like these are the golden days
and then it's just gonna
go to hell, you know?
- And it kind of did.
- Yeah.
It's weird to think about,
to look back on that time
and think, it was,
things were pretty okay.
But they were, and
in the meantime...
- Scary but temporary
at that moment.
- Scary but temporary.
- Everybody thought
it was temporary.
You know, like we're
going to fix this.
- Did you let people decide
where they were gonna get their
picture taken?
- Well, yeah,
I'm pretty flexible.
And I like to start
things off with like,
I would start things
off by saying, you know,
good to meet you,
all this other stuff
and ask how things were
going and then say, look,
there's things
that I want to do,
and I would like to do things
that you would like to do.
So where would you like a
nice family portrait just to,
for your vision,
whatever you see.
And a lot of them
had it all planned
and they had costumes on.
Most people were just like,
do whatever you want to do.
And then it would become clear
that I did what I wanted to do
and pick the windows and areas
that I wanted them to be in,
then they came up
with their own ideas.
You know, it's like
once it got started,
they always ended it with,
well, can we do one here?
They were reluctant to be the
director in the beginning,
But by the end, almost everybody
wanted to be the director.
Which was fine.
- When you did me and my wife,
we were like in our robes.
- Yeah. And that was just,
I happened to be next door.
- Yeah, you called us.
- I was like, I gotta
knock on your door and say,
hey, I'm here. Can we do it?
Because I wanna get as
many as I can, so yeah.
You were one of the,
just happenstances.
- What did you learn about
people during this time?
- I probably learned
more about my, you know,
people say I learned more
about myself and I think,
I didn't learn a
lot about the people
because it was 15 minutes.
I mean, I learned
where they lived
and you know that
they all have a dog.
- But you stared at their faces.
- Yeah.
- You know, 'cause you were
taking multiple frames.
- Everyone was happy.
Everyone was happy.
And they were probably happy
because there was something
happening, like I was there,
something is happening.
But the pictures I chose to
share had that stoic look.
And even though that's the one
that I shared because I was
trying to just convey like,
this is how we really all feel
at two in the morning
in the bathroom alone.
You know, like we're scared,
we're not frightened
all day long,
but we're definitely
nervous about this.
And like that was just kind
of conveyed the vibe of what I
thought the world
might be feeling,
even not just the
country or this city.
But there are just
as many pictures
of all of these people smiling
and laughing and having fun.
And in the private link
they got all those were there.
I just chose to share the ones
that were conveying
what I thought,
what I wanted to convey.
But what I learned
about, you know,
I think really it's the,
I just learned more and more
and more about inequality and
how privilege and
things like that.
I would go see these
people that were happy at
home because they
were making more money
than they'd ever made.
Getting, you know, some
of them $850 a week from,
the government assistance
or they already worked from
home and they were fine.
And they felt like, hey,
I was set up for this.
And then I would go to the
grocery store and the checker
would be in Kroger without a
mask because it took a while
for them to catch up, you know,
for the masks weren't even
available in the beginning.
And those people just
had to go to work.
I think it was the contrast of
seeing people in their homes
all day and then seeing people
that never quit working.
Like that kind of
thing was like, yeah,
it's always been that way.
Right. Not to bring it down.
- No, no. But did you get
some essential worker pictures
at some point?
- Oh yeah. There
were definitely,
I mean these aren't
labeled, you know,
I wish I could put
names and places
and all kinds of information
on every one of these pictures
that are hanging in the show,
but that would've taken
me a year, you know,
like to get all the
spellings correctly
and get the things right.
But there are nurses
and doc-, I mean,
most of these people were
scheduled when they signed up,
they would tell us the
day they were available.
They didn't just, some of
them said any day we're home,
but a lot of them were like,
we got their occupation.
We knew what they did,
and we put a lot of people,
a little maybe
ahead of the line.
If we knew like, oh,
this person's a nurse,
this is their only day off.
So we need to get to
their house today.
And there's one of a person
in a T-Rex blow up outfit
that's in here somewhere.
- Oh yeah, I saw that one.
- And that was a nurse
who would walk her dog
in that to make the kids
in the neighborhood laugh.
So every one of them
have some kind of story.
I got information about
every single one of them,
but yeah, there were plenty,
there was infectious disease
doctors that do the research at
St. Jude, I
photographed, you know,
those types of people from
people that worked in warehouse
and people that worked
at FedEx and they were,
you know, so some of them
were all still working.
Not all of these
people were just home.
They were scheduled
to get their day.
- I walk through these pictures
then I see faces that I know
and I see faces
that I don't know.
And you know, we
were talking earlier
before the taping
about the diversity
of the faces that
we see here too.
- Yeah. Yeah.
That was one of the main
goals too, is to try to
reach out to as many people
that might not even
have social media.
By the time we got into May,
I was talking to professors
at the universities and people
that worked at schools, at high
schools and other places to,
to send the message
out to reach people
that might not
have a smartphone
or might not have social media
'cause a lot of people
do that on purpose.
And a lot of people do it
because they don't
have the option.
And so there, you know, that
was starting to get momentum,
being introduced to people
outside of maybe the connection
that I had with people
on social media.
And, and then it, that was,
I could have gone on a year.
But things changed
in the world.
Things changed in the weather
and you know, it was just,
it was time to quit.
Physically, I couldn't
do it anymore.
It was just, I was just
getting too worn out
mentally and physically.
So at June 8th was like, yeah,
you've gotta stop or
you're gonna have a wreck.
- I think that's really
interesting though, because you,
you know, it feels
like a lot of times it,
social media is telling
you like this is everybody,
this is what everybody
thinks, but it's really not.
It's an extension
of your network.
And then which builds
in biases, you know,
to a certain extent for
the information that...
- Oh true. I mean there's
plenty of posts on social media,
which I, you know, this
stuff like this made me think
about the common people say,
well, if you're from Memphis,
you know these things and
they'll take pictures of things
around Memphis that everybody
knows, and it's like, no,
not everybody
knows those things.
It's like you lived in
that neighborhood or,
or you worked and
you have a car.
So you drove down
Union every day,
so you see this Sputnik thing
or you see the other stuff,
but man, not everybody
sees the same stuff.
So just, it can get very tribal.
- Yeah. It can, but I commend
you for trying to reach out,
for recognizing that and
trying to reach outside.
So tell us how this
exhibit came to be then.
- Well, Crosstown Arts
really supported me.
I was working for
Crosstown Arts.
When we closed, I was
running the shared arts space
that they have, which is an
amazing space and it shut down.
And there were many members
that no longer had
access to that.
So, you know, we all went home
and we have a 44-inch
Epson printer that
printed every one of these.
Crosstown Arts funded
the ink and the paper.
I printed them all, but
they paid for all of that.
And I was also like on their
payroll kind of when I was
shooting all of this
and I would be talking,
I would talk to my bosses
here and say, look,
this is what I'm doing.
And this was the plan from the
very beginning, in my mind,
I was like, you guys
are supporting me.
I would love when this
is over, when we can,
to have all of these
pictures in the gallery here
and have these people,
see these people again.
I said, it might be five years.
It might be whatever, I
don't know what it would be.
And we're still kind of,
we're not having a reception
because when we planned
this in January,
when we started the pick,
when we picked the
date in January,
everyone was sick with Omicron.
So it was, we thought we
can't announce an opening
in February because it would
just seem a little reckless,
especially for a
quarantine exhibit.
But we're planning to hopefully
have a closing
reception in April.
So that would be that's April
10th or somewhere near there.
We'll figure it out.
But yeah, so they were
really supportive.
So, that's why it's in these
galleries is because, you know,
this is where I was connected
for the last four years.
I no longer work here,
but I still do freelance
photography work
for the Concourse
building and Crosstown Arts
and you know, whatever
else comes along.
- Yeah. So you're putting
some of these photos
in a book, right?
- Yes.
The book will have one
image of every person
or family that was shot.
So it will be a 250-page
hardbound book
and it will have
at least one image
of every single family.
- So what do you
have for the future?
- Actually, I'm looking,
I'm supposed to meet today,
Craig Brewer and I are,
and Jodi Brewer are working
on a studio space to share,
so it, but it has
to be built out.
So that could be six weeks.
That could be, I don't
know, two months or more,
depends on how long that takes.
But yeah, the plan
is to open up,
just kind of a
basic photo studio,
not in the style of
Amurica across the street,
the old studio, 'cause that was
really more an event space
that was shared and
used to rent out.
This would just be
more of a studio space.
And see where it
goes from there,
'cause I've never really
had a clean, you know,
it's always been junked up.
So we'll, you know, the plan
is to just see what happens
with a clean slate in
another direction and yeah.
See what happens.
- And you gonna take
Amurica back out?
- The photo booth?
- Yeah.
- It has been out periodically
for private events
in the past month of just,
just a couple days ago.
So it's still, I mean
the website still has it
where you can book it for things
because we can show
up and wear masks
and I've gotten to the
point where, you know,
it's gotten where like
you do what you do.
It's a little safer,
you know, I don't feel,
if the people hire me
don't have a problem,
I don't have a problem.
I can keep myself
protected if I want.
So yeah, it's still there.
It's still moving, it's
just not open to the public.
Like at Overton,
you know, at places--
- You had it at Overton Square.
- We used to sit out at Overton
Square and places like that.
But that also got just a
little tough on me, you know,
like standing out
there 'til midnight.
You know, and so we're
inside the Concourse building
when we are open to the public.
That's usually 'cause
it's sheltered.
They have a huge atrium.
They've been wonderful
to me and you know,
been able to work out
where I can bring it inside
and use it there.
But we haven't really done
it a lot because it's just,
it's still been like just when
you think you're ready to go,
something happens and
everybody gets shut down again.
So it's still the timing
has just been off for that.
But it still exists
and it's still around.
- Well, Jamie Harmon,
thank you so much
for taking time with us today
and showing us around
these photographs
and thank you for
documenting Memphis
at a really strange
and unique time.
- Thanks for having me.
[upbeat blues music]
[acoustic guitar chords]