Jon Huck Interview
Jon has taken portraits of couples in his circle of LA acquaintances and friends. He was struck by the uncanny pairings that have arisen and shifted amongst these people over time within this strong-knit group and so made the photographs on wood with holes in the top so that they hang on pegs next to each other, and are easy to take down and switch. Many partners have literally switched partners over time and many have remained friends. Jon is such a well-spoken succinct thinker, and though this undertaking may on first view seem like a cynical view of marriage, he is a romantic at heart.
“For years I’ve asked people, just randomly out of curiousity, why get married, why not just live together with the person you’re with. What’s beyond just being in a relationship that you get from this?...and the woman that I work with had the best answer, that you sort of make an agreement to go beyond whatever the normal problems you would have when you’d have split up with someone...whatever that is that’s gone wrong, that you would go a step further, or the ten steps you’d have to go through in order to stay together...”
“The whole idea of marriage is really antiquated to me. I think that’s why I interviewed people for years, why I still do it. I think more people get married than should because they feel its an obligation or almost an acquisition - tthey still think that even though they may be modern in their other ways of thinking, they’re very old fashioed in this idea about being married. I think it is outmoded and even though it is a nice idea, it needs to be upmoded.”
Here are a few couples he photographed (and not all of them are still together):
