Jamie Lee Taete
Jamie Lee Taete | |
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| Born | |
| Other names | Jamie Lee Curtis Taete |
| Occupation | photographer |
| Employer | |
| Organization | |
| Agent | |
| Known for | capturing photos of quirky topics overlooked by other photographers |
| Notable credit | |
| Label | |
| Notable work | Baskin Robbins Justice Warrior |
| Opponent | |
| Criminal charge | |
| Spouse | |
| Partner | |
| ParentExpression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "[". | |
Jamie Lee Taete is a British photographer, known for capturing photos of quirky topics overlooked by other photographers.[1][2]
In an interview with It's nice that magazine Taete described getting into photography by accident.[3] He described going to a job interview for what he thought was a job in the film industry, only to realize it was a job teaching photography to children. He did well enough in the interview to get the job -- for which he felt unqualified. So he had to learn photography in a hurry, and found that he was good at it.
Taete is known for finding quirky and ironic photos.[3] In particular, in April 2020, shortly after COVID 19 counter-measures were announced, he snapped a photo, that went viral, sometimes called the "Baskin Robbins Justice Warrior".[4] The photo shows a young woman, eschewing a mask, and holding a sign that read "Give me Liberty, or give me death!", outside a Baskin Robbins ice cream shop. The photo was widely used to mock those protesting counter-measures.
Due to his reputation for finding odd angles to things, he get special commissions. In November 2024 Wired magazine hired him to document the days immediately prior to the 2024 Presidential election.[5] In January 2025 Vice magazine hired him to document California's wildfires.[6]
In 2022 the British Journal of Photography named Taete as one of its 15 "Ones to watch"' -- 15 up and coming photographers deserving scrutiny.[2]
Taete identifies as "queer", and said that being British, and queer, in America, gave him a different perspective.[2] In June, 2018, Vice magazine published an article in which Taete explains a gay idiom, the tongue pop, for straight readers.[7] Them magazine published Taete's explanation as to why queer people feel a special affinity for Disney sites and Disney products.[8]
References[edit]
- ↑
"Photographs from an anti-lockdown protest in California". The Face. 2020-04-23. Archived from the original on 2020-09-24. Retrieved 2025-03-11.
Caught in the middle of the crowds was photographer Jamie Lee Curtis Taete, who has documented a number of protests since he quit his full-time job last year – from Britney Spears superfans protesting her conservatorship enacted in 2008 after her public breakdown and climate change sceptics wearing 'I [heart] Global Warming' T-shirts, to anti-gay protestors waving placards that read: 'HOMO SEX IS A SIN.'
zero width space character in|quote=at position 301 (help) - ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2
Cat Lachowskyj (2022-06-27). "Jamie Lee Taete captures discontent and division in America". British Journal of Photography. Archived from the original on 2022-06-27. Retrieved 2025-03-11.
British people and queer people are two groups that have, historically, used humour and irony to deal with sad or scary things. As someone who is both British and queer, I don’t really know how else to process the world
- ↑ 3.0 3.1
"Jamie Lee Curtis Taete on how and why he ventured among LA's quarantine protests". It's Nice That. 2020-05-07. Archived from the original on 2025-05-13. Retrieved 2025-03-11.
In his practice, Jamie documents places or events where he thinks people will be interacting with capitalism in 'funny, sad or bizarre ways.'
- ↑
Annie Armstrong (2020-09-18). "Photographers fear steep costs and little payment for covering protests". The Art Newspaper. Archived from the original on 2021-11-18. Retrieved 2025-03-11.
Taete’s most widely seen photo from this year is of an anti-lockdown protest, where he captured a woman shrieking outside of a Baskin Robbins ice cream shop while holding an American flag and a sign that read, “Give me liberty or give me death”. The viral image was shown on the late-night TV programme "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee" as well as used in publications such as The Washington Post and Newsweek, yet Taete reports he has only received about $300 for the image in licensing.
- ↑
Ali Cherkis (2024-11-07). "Dispatch From Maricopa County: Election Deniers, Voting Counts, and More". Wired magazine. Archived from the original on 2024-11-07. Retrieved 2025-03-11.
'Some of the rhetoric and political opinions I encountered were completely horrifying, but when I had actual one-on-one conversations with people, they couldn’t have been more pleasant. Which is the big tragedy of American politics,' says photographer Jamie Lee Taete of the final days of the US election.
- ↑
Jamie Lee Taete (2025-01-10). "Wildfire: Surreal Photos of Los Angeles in Ashes". Vice magazine. Archived from the original on 2025-01-12. Retrieved 2025-03-11.
His images capture a familiar neighborhood rendered suddenly alien by the sheer force of the inferno, a landscape of charred remains largely absent of people as just under 180,000 flee under evacuation orders, with another 200,000 on standby.
- ↑ Jamie Lee Curtis Taete (2018-06-20). "This Hidden Meme Makes 'Hereditary' a Comedy". Vice magazine. Archived from the original on 2020-11-09. Retrieved 2021-05-31.
- ↑
Jamie Lee Curtis Taete (2019-07-19). "Queer People Love Disney Parks. They Don't Always Love Them Back". Them magazine. Archived from the original on 2020-09-22. Retrieved 2025-03-11.
Almost all of their films tell the stories of characters who don’t fit into the societies in which they live. And some get even queerer. Like Mulan, which explores non-normative gender identity and a debateably bisexual romance. And Pinnochio, whose titular character spends much of the film agonizing over the fact that he isn’t a “real boy.” And Beauty and the Beast, which can be read as an allegory for AIDS, a disease that was in the process of claiming the life of the film’s gay lyricist and executive producer, Howard Ashman, while he worked on it.