Between water and light with Jonah Allen

Phillip Lanos Podcast

Jonah Allen, a visual artist and photographer, focuses on the relationship between water and light. He has been working on a book for three years, documenting coastal dune-like outfalls, and has developed a successful non-traditional business selling large-format prints. Allen emphasizes the importance of marketing, including social media and targeted outreach, to build a successful creative business.

• Career Focus: Jonah Allen is a visual artist and photographer focusing on the relationship between water and light.

• Artistic Identity: Allen identifies as a photographic artist, emphasizing their intentful and artistic approach to photography.

• Book Project: The speaker has been working on a book called “Where Waters Meet” for three years, focusing on coastal dune-like outfalls and the confluence of waters.

• Leveraging Technology: Technology has democratized the art world by removing the need for traditional middlemen like art galleries, allowing artists to reach a wider audience directly.

• Importance of Marketing: Successful artists need to focus on marketing and building a strong brand to connect with their target audience and generate sales.

• Marketing Strategy: Utilize a combination of “seeds” (referrals, outreach), “nets” (social media, email marketing), and “spears” (targeted outreach) to build a brand.

• Dream 100 Goal: Aiming to connect and collaborate with influential individuals, referred to as the “Dream 100,” within the industry.

• Creative Inspiration: Draws inspiration from various sources, including music (Olafur Arnald) and photography (Edward Bratinsky), aiming to create ethereal images.

• Importance of Art History: Understanding art history provides context and understanding of concepts and culture, but it’s also important to innovate and not just follow in someone’s footsteps.

• Biggest Roadblock: Negotiating a lease for a gallery space fell through, but the speaker is now focusing on scaling their business digitally to make it easier to secure a physical space in the future.

• Challenges for Creative Visual Arts: Securing a building for creative visual arts can be difficult due to factors like financial requirements, paperwork, and approval processes.

• Art market as an investment: The art market is a $50 billion industry that is non-standardized, opaque, and unregulated, making it susceptible to manipulation.

• Jonah’s Website and Social Media: Jonah’s website is jonahallen.com and his Instagram is @jonahallenstudio.

• Meeting with Elton: The speaker wants to meet Elton and have a coffee with him.