Today we’d like to introduce you to Jacob Webster.
Jacob, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Ever since I was young, I was always creative. Whether it was acting, drawing, or painting–I was just drawn to it Our photo albums are full of a young me almost always holding some sort of camera. I remember my 8th grade year was when Instagram started becoming popular. I begged my mom to get me a Kodak camera if I brought home straight A’s that semester, and I kept up my end of the bargain. It was a wrap after that. I started taking pictures everywhere: school events, the mall, nature and anything that caught my eye.
I think I hit a turning point during my freshman year of high school when my oldest brother gave me his old Canon. With an upgraded camera, I started building on what I already had learned with my Kodak with more determination towards perfecting my craft. I spent hours watching America’s Next Top Model episode recaps on YouTube, studying Nigel Barker—a famous international photographer who I had quickly grown to admire for his creativity.
Shortly after, I transitioned from landscape to portrait photography. We had a couple sun reflectors, you know the type that you use for your car, in my garage and so I snuck them to school and stuffed them in my locker one day. At the end of that school day, I convinced one of my friends to stay after and take pictures with me. Using the reflector to bounce the light off the sun the photos had a more dramatic effect and once we uploaded them, everyone went crazy. From there JPW Photo was born. Everyone wanted to stay after school to take pictures with me. The aspiring MUAs and hairstylists started doing makeup and hair for my models in the cafeteria, and we’d beg security to allow us to stay later. It was this huge thing. Next thing I knew, everyone in our county from different schools wanted to be a part of the team.
That Christmas, my Grandmother bought me a portable studio, so that I could shoot inside with my lighting and backdrops. With a heavier focus on perfecting my craft, I started getting better and taught myself how to edit to perfect my work in post-production. By senior year, I was shooting for Miss USA, had a feature in an Essence article online, a strong social media presence online, and an established a name brand.
When I look back at my journey, I really took lemons and made the finest lemonade. I used what I had and created from my heart, even when I was using a ten-year old camera from Amazon. I spent hours teaching myself how to be better. Once I started studying some of my favorite photographers like Herb Ritts or Annie Leibovitz, I immediately knew I wanted to be a celebrity photographer and eventually have my work in Vogue.
It’s almost been eight years since I did that first photo shoot at my school, and I feel so humbled by how much I’ve grown.
Atlanta is a huge part of my story because I was forced to get back on track after falling off. Once I went to college and joined my fraternity, I completely stopped taking photos for almost an entire year. I was traveling a lot and one of my most frequent places was Atlanta. Being in the city and networking with so many talented, driven people sparked my desire to start creating again. I’d people I was a photographer and they would already have heard of me and would tell me how much they loved my work. To leave my craft behind would’ve been a disservice to myself and the people who believed in me. Surrounded by all these creatives inspired me to get back to it.
More recently, I’ve become bi-coastal, traveling back and forth to Los Angeles, where I’ve been able to shoot amazing events including Diddy’s 50th birthday party, the Grammy’s and NAACP Image Awards. This new part of my journey has allowed me to meet and shoot amazing people in the industry like Naomi Campbell, Kim Kardashian and Kanye, Jay-Z, Cardi B, Diddy, Mary J. Blige and many more.
With a successful business and the resources I need to create a higher quality of work, I feel like I’ve found a new love for my craft. As I start to venture further into the industry, it feels like everything I’ve worked so hard is finally coming to fruition, and it makes me look back on my journey to appreciate the sacrifices I made to get here.
Now I’ve just been trying to network like crazy and looking to inspire others my age to believe in themselves and trust God’s process.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
As a young, BLACK creative, I constantly find myself working ten times harder than my non-POC (especially Black) counterparts because nothing ever has nor will it ever be handed to me on a silver platter.
We can be our own biggest critics. There have been moments where I felt like my content wasn’t good enough and didn’t understand why so many doors were closing on me. I know you should never create for others, but I do want my art to be well received and acknowledged. My team and I spend so much time on projects and feel like its overlooked. Then you might have people doing the bare minimum, and it gets so much praise. It can be frustrating. My friends, family, and people that might not even know me are always telling me that they love my work, but I always see room for improvement.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
As a freelance creative director and photographer, I created JPW Photo. We specialize in the conceptualization and fulfillment of beauty and fashion-centric photography. A self-taught creative with over seven years of experience, I pride myself on running a service-oriented business tailoring the experience to the needs of my clientele.
Through JPW Photo, I strive to continue to make an impact on my community through art and photography. One of my favorite projects was when my team and I brought the Proud Family to life. This was so important to me because it fostered nostalgia from the childhood and culture of my audience.
As I continue to grow, I plan to keep spotlighting black culture and human culture while providing the high-quality services.
What were you like growing up?
I was the same: energetic, crazy and the life of the party. I loved to act, draw, play games, and just have fun with my imagination! I can only thank God because I feel like I had the best childhood which, surprisingly enough, is almost parallel to my life right now. I was always an entrepreneur finding new ways to make money and create in a way that made people smile. In high school, I won homecoming court, was voted “Most Likely to be a celebrity,” and my life is starting to mirror that.
Of course, there were times where I was a “bad kid” and would get in trouble but wouldn’t trade those experiences for the world because they contributed to who I am now and built me up spiritually, physically, emotionally. These moments made me get right with God as I grew to understand how the universe works. One of the biggest lessons for me was karma. I know now as soon as I do something wrong, I’m going to get it right back and I don’t even bother anymore.
All my experiences made me who I am today, and I’m not done growing as I will always be a student of life.
Contact Info:
- Website: jpwclients.com
- Email: jpwclients@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/jpwphoto
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/cameramanjake
Image Credit:
Jacob Webster
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