How a Stockton artist discovered his love for music, photography and made it big

Snap Jackson, aka Tony Borrego III, has had successful careers in both photography and music. “Snap” comes from his love of snapping pictures and Jackson was a name that he and his friends came up with.

Born in French Camp and raised Stockton he was immersed in the arts at an early age by his grandmothers. His paternal grandmother, Ernestine, was a gifted illustrator while his maternal grandmother, Molly, loved taking photos and displaying those pictures around her house. Both of them were big fans of live music, theater and museums and would include Jackson in as many cultural and arts events as they could. His love of art first manifested in him through drawing as a child.

Jackson took piano lessons at about 7 years old. He picked up the saxophone in the fourth grade at Monroe Elementary School in Stockton. He became interested in rapping and songwriting in high school.

In the late 90s, at about 19-years-old, a girl he was dating at the time lent him her aunt’s 35mm SLR camera and he fell in love with photography. After shooting a few rolls of film, he enrolled in photo classes at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton and became a fixture there.

He loved photographing people, from his friends to his family to people in the community. Jackson describes his photography as environmental portraiture or an urban documentary style. There is a certain intimacy in his images where he makes a deep connection with his subjects that translates through to the viewer.

In the early 2000s he moved to San Francisco and enrolled at the Academy of Art as a photography major. Things happened pretty quickly for Jackson after that. He started photographing some national touring musicians and popular music venues. He sent his work to various magazines, many of which called back to regularly feature his photos.

In his 20s, his photography gigs had him traveling quite bit and spending a lot of time in hotel rooms. Looking for something to pass the time, he randomly purchased a banjo which became an obsession for him. Soon he was practicing three to five hours a day.

Within a year he helped form a rock/folk/soul fusion band called the Second String Quartet. After a few years that band dissolved and he formed the Bluegrass/Americana group Snap Jackson and the Knock On Wood Players with high school friend Shane Kalbach. They started recording albums and touring regularly. He and Kalbach also teach music privately as well as at various music camps and festivals. In 2018, he won the Northern California Bluegrass Society’s Banjo Player and Male Vocalist of the Year awards.

Jackson says at one point music took up the majority of his time, but then he was able to eventually balance work between his two loves. That is, until COVID hit.

During the pandemic, music promoters and venues stopped organizing shows for quite a while. With that creative outlet closed, Jackson relied heavily on the visual arts. Even with the restrictions he was still able to do a lot of socially distanced and safe photoshoots. They culminated in a series of “porch portraits” featured in a display titled “Love in the Time of COVID" at the Haggin Museum in 2021.

This year, Jackson is putting both his talents together with a collaboration with the Stockton Soul nonprofit music collective. Not only will he be capturing the groups’ performances with his camera, he will also be playing his banjo song with the group.

Often we are asked to choose between two favorite art mediums or activities. Jackson has found a way to indulge his love for music and photography and do each with excellence.

Record photographer Clifford Oto has photographed Stockton and San Joaquin County for more than 38 years. He can be reached at coto@recordnet.com. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.

This article originally appeared on The Record: Snap Jackson of Stockton has passion for music, photography