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World, say howdy to Jacob Webster — the superstar photographer capturing each star from Lori Harvey and Doja Cat to SZA and Cardi B. The 23-year-old Maryland native is making fairly a reputation for himself as a contract photographer and inventive director, touchdown credit for his work in publications like Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, WWD, Essence, and extra. But his astronomical rise has solely simply begun.
Webster tells POPSUGAR he picked up his first digicam when he was within the eighth grade, however later turned images right into a aspect hustle whereas he was a scholar at Towson University. What began out with native commencement photograph shoots changed into Webster launching his personal enterprise — JPW Photo — in July 2019. It grew to become the launching pad for his profitable profession, which now contains taking pictures a few of at the moment’s greatest celebrities.
“Lori was the one individual that basically put me on so far as taking an opportunity on me.”
It all began in 2019, when a buddy requested if Webster was desirous about taking pictures Diddy’s fiftieth celebration. “I used to be like, ‘Oh my gosh,'” he remembers. Despite touchdown such a giant alternative, Webster says he nearly psyched himself out; on the time, he did not assume he was able to do occasion images: “I used to be calling my associates like, ‘They need me to shoot Diddy’s celebration. I’m not about to go, I’m not certified for this.'” Of course, Webster ended up accepting the gig and gave himself a phrase of recommendation that might push him to the subsequent stage. “I bear in mind telling myself, ‘You can not go on this room and never make a connection,'” he says. “‘You need to make some sort of connection or there isn’t any level in you being there . . . There’s no purpose that God would put that in your plate if you cannot deal with it.'”
Webster refers to Diddy’s celebration as a “large and pivotal second” in his life. But linking up with Harvey is what actually received the ball rolling for his profession. “Lori was the one individual that basically put me on so far as taking an opportunity on me,” Webster shares. “She got here to Maryland for Howard’s homecoming in October 2019, they usually had been in search of a photographer and so I reached out.” Webster says he instructed a buddy he had a sense the chance could be a “actually large breakthrough” for him, and it was. That first photograph shoot with Harvey led to many future collaborations between the 2.
“Lori is simply the lady subsequent door. So fairly, so stunning, you are able to do something together with her and it comes out so properly.”
From capturing Harvey’s first couple photographs with ex-Michael B. Jordan to her twenty fifth celebration earlier this 12 months, Webster says the model-turned-entrepreneur has turn out to be one in all his fundamental, and favourite, muses. “Lori is simply the lady subsequent door. So fairly, so stunning, you are able to do something together with her and it comes out so properly,” he shares of what it is wish to {photograph} her. Webster’s different favourite stars to work with? “[It’d] in all probability positively be Doja,” he says. “She’s so inventive and he or she’s so revolutionary that it is like I’m all the time doing one thing new together with her and it is all the time altering.” Other shoppers like Chlöe, Halle Bailey, and Normani, all of whom Webster watched rise to fame through the years, have turn out to be a few of his good associates. “I bear in mind watching her in 2012 on ‘X Factor,'” he remembers of Normani. “We went to Cabo for her birthday [earlier this year], and everybody was going round doing cheers. I bear in mind telling her, ‘Wow, it is so loopy how the universe can align folks. I bear in mind watching you on ‘X Factor,’ and now right here we’re precisely 10 years later, and we’re actually in Cabo celebrating your birthday.'”
Webster wholeheartedly believes within the energy of manifestation and attributes that to his success, however all the time being ready and “skilled to go” together with his digicam has additionally performed a task in reserving large gigs. Case in level: he as soon as received a name to shoot Megan Thee Stallion’s “Body” music video with solely half-hour to spare. “I used to be with my buddy Kira. We had been leaving LA, after which one in all my associates, Scott, who was styling Asian Doll, was like, ‘Asian Doll is in search of a photographer . . . for Megan’s music video. Can you shoot her?'” Webster remembers. “I’m like, ‘I’m on my solution to the airport,’ however I rotated actual fast.”
“The solely folks I really feel like I’ve left to do is Rihanna, Zendaya, Bella Hadid, and Kylie Jenner.”
Over the previous few years, Webster has added folks like Ciara, Megan Fox, Machine Gun Kelly, Drake, Keke Palmer, Latto, Monica, Jordyn Woods, and others to his Rolodex of shoppers. But he has much more celebrities he hopes to work with in the future. “The solely folks I really feel like I’ve left to do is Rihanna, Zendaya, Bella Hadid, and Kylie Jenner,” Webster says. “But I actually know all of them at this level.”
Making himself recognized amongst the celebs is not the one factor on Webster’s objective listing. In addition to rebranding his platform, he additionally desires to work on mentoring others in his subject. “I really feel like I have never been capable of present up for my group as a result of I’ve been in a means of constructing, constructing, constructing, and I’m nonetheless making an attempt to study myself,” Webster says. “Now I really feel like I’m type of in an area the place I can begin making an attempt to assist someone else within the meantime. Like the larger the platform you could have, the extra folks you may attain and the extra folks you may impression.”
Right now, Webster is targeted on increasing his portfolio of superstar shoppers and perfecting his craft so he can collaborate with main manufacturers. “I actually wish to see myself in in all probability 5 years simply inventive directing for vogue manufacturers,” he shares. “Doing inventive shoots for giant manufacturers. It could be for Diesel, or Givenchy, or Prada . . . If that is not the house I’m in proper now, that is wonderful, it’s going to come.”
Indeed, with a lot success so rapidly, there’s time. As Webster places it: “I really feel like I nonetheless have numerous studying to do and I’m simply nonetheless a scholar to the sport, so proper now I’m simply in an area of constructing, studying, and rising.”