How Havas' Jason Peterson Became Insta Immemorial

With agencies wondering how to feed the ever-gaping maws of social platforms with fast, credible content and brands hitching their wagons to any old (or rather new) social media personality, influencer marketing can feel a bit like the blind leading the blind.

But when Jason Peterson talks about social strategy his clients actually sit up and listen. With a million Instagram followers, and as a regular behind the lens at A$AP Rocky’s gigs and Chicago Bulls games, Peterson is a bona-fide influencer. No wonder brands and even rival ad agencies are falling over themselves to work with him.

A fan of the Kubrick rubric

His account, @jasonmpeterson, is one of the most beautiful you’ll ever scroll through: black-and-white cityscapes and abstract architectural details, peppered here and there with shots of young, hip musicians, sports stars and even a former US president (he photographed Obama’s final speech). New York is a frequent theme, but it’s Chicago that makes the most breathtaking subject for Peterson’s stylised, high-contrast aesthetic, with its vertiginous skyscrapers, steep-walled alleys and Möbius-strip freeways, while the fog rolling off Lake Michigan lends drama to an already dramatic skyline.

Inspired by black-and-white street and fashion photography pioneered by 50s photographer Harry Callahan, as well as Stanley Kubrick’s early photo-journalism, Peterson’s work has a very classical feel, so it’s no surprise to learn that the Ohio native started out shooting on film and was an avid student of the craft: aged 14, he even had his own darkroom. Photography remained a hobby throughout his advertising career, but it was only in 2010, when Peterson moved to Havas Chicago, that he realised it could be something more. “It coincided with my day job as a creative director and the looming importance of social media,” he explains. “I wanted to figure out a way into social media that would match my passion for photography.”

“To me, a great photograph is really simple: it makes you feel something.”

He started posting to Instagram “almost as a joke – I thought it was just some corny filter app thing”. But his following quickly swelled to the thousands, then the tens of thousands, before breaking the one million mark last year, thanks to a namecheck from pro skater Tony Hawk. Peterson now shoots and publishes two photos on Instagram every day, a quick-fire way of working that suits his “crazy ADHD” much better than classic film photography – “I’d be left with these rolls and rolls of undeveloped film because I’d just forget about it and do something else."

Why shoot solely in monochrome? “I really like the timeless nature of [black and white photography]. There’s something about colour that really marks time. Close your eyes and think about the 1950s, 60s or 80s: there’s a colour palette. But I could shoot a black-and-white photo in downtown Chicago right now and you wouldn’t know if it was today, or a month from now, or from the 1950s.”

Long waits for lens magic

Many of Peterson’s images – such as a solitary figure caught in a beam of sunlight emerging from one of the city’s famous alleyways – look staged, almost like film sets, but are actually the result of patience, perseverance and a hefty dollop of luck. Getting a shot of Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate sculpture (affectionately known locally as The Bean) without the usual selfie-snapping tourist hordes, for example, involved a game of hide-and-seek with the park’s security guards at 2am. Other times, Peterson might wait for hours “for a shaft of light to come down the side of a building”. One of his favourite images, of a couple embracing under an arch in a snowy New York park, was taken totally by chance: a good example of why, despite being sponsored by Leica and the proud owner of a drone, he still periodically shoots on an iPhone: “The best camera is the one you have on you when something’s happening right in front of you.”

In a world where anyone with a phone can be a creator, what has been the secret to Peterson’s success? “To me, a great photograph is really simple: it makes you feel something,” he reckons. More importantly, perhaps, he understands the importance of an authentic voice and is choosy about commercial partnerships. “I turn down probably 70 per cent of opportunities, because not only would those brands be wasting their money, I would also be destroying my brand by promoting something that has nothing to do with me or my photography.” 

“The best camera is the one you have on you when something’s happening right in front of you.”

When it comes to his day job, Peterson’s influencer status not only lends him credibility with clients but has propelled his rise through Havas’ ranks. “I remember people giving me shit [at the beginning], like, ‘All you care about is Instagram,’” he remembers. “And I would say, I’m like an athlete who trains before he plays a game. This is my workout before game day!’”

A major benefit of being part of the Instagram community is the access to a “whole different pool of super-creative and inspiring talent”, allowing Peterson to bypass the usual recruitment channels. “I’ll post on Instagram when I’m in another city, and say ‘Come hang out with me and shoot some photos, and 500 creative kids show up… We’ve hired 50 creators who knew nothing about advertising, and now they’re innovating and changing the way we work. So through this whole other [channel] we’ve been able to energise our agency.”