World, say hi there to Jacob Webster — the movie star 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. However 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 pupil at Towson College. What began out with native commencement photograph shoots was Webster launching his personal enterprise — JPW Picture — in July 2019. It turned the launching pad for his profitable profession, which now contains capturing a few of in the present day’s greatest celebrities.
“Lori was the one individual that actually put me on so far as taking an opportunity on me.”
It began in 2019, when a buddy requested if Webster was taken with capturing Diddy’s fiftieth birthday celebration. “I used to be like, ‘Oh my gosh,'” he recollects. Regardless of touchdown such an enormous alternative, Webster says he virtually psyched himself out; on the time, he did not suppose he was able to do occasion images: “I used to be calling my mates like, ‘They need me to shoot Diddy’s birthday celebration. I am not about to go, I am not certified for this.'” After all, Webster ended up accepting the gig and gave himself a phrase of recommendation that might push him to the subsequent degree. “I keep in mind telling myself, ‘You can’t go on this room and never make a connection,'” he says. “‘You must make some kind of connection or there is not any level in you being there . . . There is no motive that God would put that in your plate if you cannot deal with it.'”
Webster refers to Diddy’s birthday celebration as a “big and pivotal second” in his life. However linking up with Harvey is what actually acquired the ball rolling for his profession. “Lori was the one individual that actually 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 have been on the lookout for a photographer and so I reached out.” Webster says he advised a buddy he had a sense the chance could be a “actually huge breakthrough” for him, and it was. That first photograph shoot with Harvey led to many future collaborations between the 2.
“Lori is simply the woman subsequent door. So fairly, so lovely, you are able to do something along with her and it comes out so properly.”
From capturing Harvey’s first couple photographs with ex-Michael B. Jordan to her twenty fifth birthday celebration earlier this yr, Webster says the model-turned-entrepreneur has turn into one among his principal, and favourite, muses. “Lori is simply the woman subsequent door. So fairly, so lovely, you are able to do something along with her and it comes out so properly,” he shares of what it is prefer to {photograph} her. Webster’s different favourite stars to work with? “[It’d] in all probability undoubtedly be Doja,” he says. “She’s so inventive and he or she’s so modern that it is like I am all the time doing one thing new along with her and it is all the time altering.” Different purchasers like Chlöe, Halle Bailey, and Normani, all of whom Webster watched rise to fame through the years, have turn into a few of his good mates. “I keep in mind watching her in 2012 on ‘X Issue,'” he recollects of Normani. “We went to Cabo for her birthday [earlier this year], and everybody was going round doing cheers. I keep in mind telling her, ‘Wow, it is so loopy how the universe can align folks. I keep in mind watching you on ‘X Issue,’ 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” along with his digicam has additionally performed a task in reserving huge gigs. Working example: he as soon as acquired a name to shoot Megan Thee Stallion’s “Physique” music video with solely half-hour to spare. “I used to be with my buddy Kira. We have been leaving LA, after which one among my mates, Scott, who was styling Asian Doll, was like, ‘Asian Doll is on the lookout for a photographer . . . for Megan’s music video. Are you able to shoot her?'” Webster recollects. “I am like, ‘I am on my technique to the airport,’ however I circled actual fast.”
“The one 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 purchasers. However he has much more celebrities he hopes to work with at some point. “The one folks I really feel like I’ve left to do is Rihanna, Zendaya, Bella Hadid, and Kylie Jenner,” Webster says. “However I actually know all of them at this level.”
Making himself recognized amongst the celebs is not the one factor on Webster’s purpose checklist. Along with rebranding his platform, he additionally needs to work on mentoring others in his discipline. “I really feel like I have never been capable of present up for my group as a result of I have been in a strategy of constructing, constructing, constructing, and I am nonetheless making an attempt to study myself,” Webster says. “Now I really feel like I am type of in an area the place I can begin making an attempt to assist any person else within the meantime. Like the larger the platform you have got, the extra folks you possibly can attain and the extra folks you possibly can impression.”
Proper now, Webster is concentrated on increasing his portfolio of movie star purchasers 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 may be for Diesel, or Givenchy, or Prada . . . If that is not the area I am in proper now, that is high-quality, it’s going to come.”
Certainly, with a lot success so rapidly, there’s time. As Webster places it: “I really feel like I nonetheless have lots of studying to do and I am simply nonetheless a pupil to the sport, so proper now I am simply in an area of constructing, studying, and rising.”
