Personnel Profile: Jana Saastad

Jana Saastad is the Republican Caucus photographer. Her work often frequents the pages of Capitol Weekly. She spoke with us of her love for photography, a love that began at the tender age of ten, when her artistic eye first began to manifest itself through pictures.

Jana Saastad: I’ve been a republican for life, one of the most exciting moments for me was voting for Reagan in the 1980 elections. I’ve wanted to work in the capitol for a lot of years, I was busy raising kids, three boys, and it wasn’t condusive to the kind of hours and schedule we have here. So I waited until my kids were raised before I came here and knocked on any doors.

Colin Rigley: Have you always wanted to be a photographer?

JS: Yeah I’ve always enjoyed photography. I used to go waste a lot of, or I used to spend a lot of my parent’s money on film. They’d get upset because I’d try to shoot artsy stuff, including chopping off heads and half of people’s faces, trying to be Warholl, not that he’s a photographer. I was just trying to always do something weird, they didn’t appreciate it.

CR: What age was this?

JS: Ten, eleven. You’d look at magazines and stuff, fashion magazines, and kind of see weird stuff. So you’re at Disneyland with all this film and my parents would go, ‘What are you doing?’ because everyone just wants the framed, you know?

CR: The photographers I know are all big film buffs. What is your favorite and least favorite movie, why?

JS: I am really into film. Favorite, that’s hard to nail down