Jarrad Seng facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jarrad Seng
Seng in April 2015
Born	(1988-02-02) 2 February 1988 (age 37) Newman, Western Australia
Nationality	Australian
Occupation	Photographer, filmmaker
Years active	2009–present

Jarrad Seng (born 2 February 1988) is an Australian photographer and filmmaker. He lives in Perth. Jarrad loves to mix his work with his interests in music, travel, and helping others.

He often works with English singer Passenger. Jarrad was his tour photographer for seven tours between 2012 and 2015. He also directed many of Passenger's music videos. Jarrad has also toured with the American band Matchbox Twenty and Australian folk singer Stu Larsen.

Jarrad's personal photography has taken him to Tanzania and Iceland twice. He has shown his photos in four solo exhibitions. These include Portraits of Tanzania (2011) and The Space Between (2015). He also had a show with Perth artist Amok Island called Parallels (2016).

In December 2014, Jarrad became famous online. He made a funny video where he pretended to be American DJ Steve Aoki at a music festival. The video became very popular. In 2013, Jarrad was a finalist for a youth arts award in Western Australia. He also competed in season four of Australian Survivor in 2017.

Early Life and Education

Jarrad Seng was born in a mining town called Newman in Western Australia. His father, Kim, is from Malaysia. His mother, Alice, is a Christmas Islander of Chinese background. When Jarrad was three, his family moved to Mandurah. He went to Frederick Irwin Anglican School and finished in 2005.

After school, Jarrad started studying law at the University of Western Australia (UWA). But he soon realized it wasn't for him. He preferred creative things. So, he changed his studies to arts and commerce. From 2008 to 2011, Jarrad worked in different roles at St George's College. This was the college where he lived.

Photography Career

Jarrad always liked photography, but he never took formal classes. He started his photography career in 2009. At the time, he was a music editor for Pelican, the UWA student newspaper.

He got a media pass for the West Coast Blues & Roots Festival. He secretly checked the box for a photographer's pass, even though he was only supposed to be a writer. Jarrad borrowed a friend's camera. He looked up how to take photos online. His pictures turned out well! This made him buy his own camera and keep taking photos.

Jarrad soon found that photography helped him with his interests. These included music, travel, and volunteering. He said he "fell in love with the idea of capturing the beauty of the world" in 2009. This happened while he was volunteering at a school in Nepal. In 2009, he also started an internship at the Perth International Arts Festival. This let him photograph events and get his work noticed.

Seng frequently collaborates with English singer Passenger, both as his tour photographer and director of many of his music videos.

Since 2012, Jarrad has been a tour photographer for many musicians. He was the tour photographer for English singer Passenger on seven tours. These tours happened between 2012 and 2015. In 2013, Jarrad toured with American rock band Matchbox Twenty. He joined them on their Australian tour. An ebook called Going North was released. It showed Jarrad's photos and stories from the tour. He also toured with Australian folk singer Stu Larsen in Europe in 2014.

Besides music photography, Jarrad has directed many music videos. He has made videos for Passenger, Emma Stevens, Stu Larsen, and Patrick James. In October 2014, Jarrad won $5,000 for his photo of an Amity Affliction concert. It won the music category at the 2014 Monster Children Photo Comp. In April 2015, a short film Jarrad directed won a competition. It was made to promote North Queensland tourism.

In 2013, Jarrad was a finalist for the Propel Youth Arts Award. He was also featured in a video in March 2017 promoting the Microsoft Surface Book.

Photography Exhibitions

In 2011, Jarrad went to Tanzania to volunteer at a school. On weekends, he visited villages and took photos of the Maasai people. These photos became his first solo exhibition, Portraits of Tanzania.

Jarrad traveled to Iceland in 2012. He wanted to take photos of the country's volcanic rivers from above. He rented a small plane and took pictures out the window. He said it was hard to open the window because of the cold air. But he pushed through to get the shots. These photos were shown in 2013 at his second exhibition, Alltervatn.

In 2013, Jarrad went back to Tanzania. He helped film a short movie about the orphanage. He also took more photos, focusing on the Maasai children. These photos were shown in 2014 at his third exhibition, Spirit of the Maasai. The movie, My African Home, won an award in 2015. While in Tanzania, Jarrad found the Maasai people he had photographed earlier. He gave them printed copies of their old photos.

Jarrad returned to Iceland in 2015. He took a series of self-portraits against the beautiful landscape. He said these photos show how you can feel both important and tiny when you are in nature. This series of 12 photos became his fourth exhibition, The Space Between.

In December 2016, Jarrad worked with artist Amok Island. They had their first show together called Parallels. It showed Jarrad's aerial photos of Rottnest Island's coast. Amok Island then made paintings inspired by these photos.

Other Projects

In the late 2000s, Jarrad played keyboards for a band called John and the Inverarities.

Since 2013, Jarrad has joined the Perth Fashion Festival's Windows of the City competition. This event pairs artists with local businesses. They create amazing store window displays. In 2013, Jarrad worked on a paper cut display for a cafe. In 2014, he created Perth24 — A Portrait of the City. For this, he spent 24 hours taking 300 photos of people on the streets of Perth. In 2015, he made a photo display for a bar.

In 2014, Jarrad started The Hidden Sound. This was a series of music shows where the artist and place were kept secret until the last minute. Australian singer-songwriter Kate Miller-Heidke performed the first show in August 2014.

Jarrad became known worldwide in December 2014. This happened after a funny video he put on YouTube and Facebook went viral. The video shows Jarrad walking around the Stereosonic music festival in Perth. He was dressed up as American DJ Steve Aoki. People sometimes mistake Jarrad for Steve Aoki. In the video, festival-goers call out Aoki's name and take photos with Jarrad. Jarrad is also shown dancing in the crowd while the real Steve Aoki is performing. Steve Aoki saw the video. The next weekend, they did another prank together. Jarrad dressed as Aoki, and Aoki pretended to be his photographer.

In May 2015, after earthquakes in Nepal, Jarrad raised $10,000 for the Australian Red Cross. He did this by doing different requests for people and businesses over 24 hours. This included taking photos and giving a talk to students.

Jarrad competed in season four of the TV show Australian Survivor. It was filmed in Samoa and started airing on 30 July 2017. He was the 13th person voted off. He made it to day 36 and became the first member of the jury. Jarrad said being on the show was "so surreal" and "really great, but it was really brutal as well, and that's what I loved."

Personal Life

Since 2015, Jarrad Seng has been dating Rebecca Williams. She was a finalist in the Miss Universe WA competition.