Biography
Jonathan David Trevino was born February 15, 1989, in San Antonio, Texas to Reynaldo Trevino and Florinda Palacios. His childhood was colored by the conflicting wonders and terrors of a strong Christian upbringing while simultaneously being enchanted by the contradictory, material allure of American popular culture (movies, music, video games, fashion, automobiles, and advertisement).
In addition to the ideological challenges of his upbringing, were the challenges of environmental instability and poverty, for which he would soon find enriching alternatives.
Leaving home at the young age of 15 to concentrate on his personal path of formal education and artistic growth, he graduated from Oliver Wendell Holmes High School in the top of his class in 2007. Shortly after graduation and working his first job in a small commercial portrait studio, he graduated with an associate of art in fine arts from San Antonio College in 2010, sponsored by his completion of the Presidential Honors Programs offered to select students at that time.
Upon completing his first degree, he was accepted into both the School of Visual Arts (SVA) and Parsons, The New School For Design, NYC. He chose Parsons, transferred, and later graduated from their Art, Media, and Technology Program with Honors and a BFA in Photography in Spring of 2013.
His artistic concentration, since his humble beginning, developed out of the foundations of the traditional fine arts of black and white photography and sculpture, transitioning into digital photographic and video art as a dual practice before technology had afforded their practical union. In relation to these arts, he sought training in 16mm filmmaking and the art of fine jewelry making at the Fashion Institute of Technology as a supplemental artistic skill for later implementation into future works.
Before graduation, he began working as a photographic assistant in fashion advertising and production. He worked as second and the first assistant to renowned fashion photographer Daniel Jackson and rising fashion photographer, Arno Frugier(former assistant to Paolo Roversi).
Clients included Vogue China, Sephora, Dazed & Confused Magazine, with subjects ranging from star models Abbey Lee Kershaw and Naomi Cambell to then rising talent, Iggy Azalea and many other contemporary cultural icons and creatives of the day.
Shortly after graduation, he found a position as a studio manager at a sports-based design firm where he quickly began shooting and running production for their major client, Nike NYC. Not long after gaining this position, he landed his first major job shooting for the Nike F.C. Collection catalog and working as junior producer on the “Bo Knows” collection photographic campaign, and continued to make photographs to be used in advertising and design for clients ranging from Nike, Redbull Music Academy, and Mercedes Benz.
After four years of residence in NYC, Jonathan has returned to his home in San Antonio, where he humbly and gratefully brings his hard-earned experience and education in the hope of enriching his city and contributing to the great artistic growth that continues to make San Antonio one of the best places to live for art in evolution today.
It is his firm belief that the place we are born is where we owe our vision and that as an American artist, there is a responsibility to the growth of American Art and the artistic family tree to which all artists belong in the world. It is his hope that what we make will flourish and communicate a vital message to the world well beyond the 21st century.
