Ep 15 • Jabari Jacobs
ABout Jabari
I am a portrait, commercial & editorial photographer from Prince George’s County, Maryland.
I got my start in photography from working in music as a music producer. A recording artist I worked with was in need of photos for an album and couldn’t afford a photographer; I borrowed a camera to create the photographs myself. I had no prior knowledge or history of working with cameras.
Discovering a new passion of mine, I started to photograph people more. I eventually got the attention of an art director at Atlantic Records, who gave me my first job of photographing Twenty-One Pilots for their album, “Blurryface”.
SHow Notes
Website: jabarijacobs.com
Where are you based?: Washington DC
Camera Brand: Canon
Most Influential Photographer: Chi Modu & Gordon Parks
Favorite Lens: Canon 24-70 2.8 is only lens I owned for the first years of my career. Seems to have the best range for portraits.
In your opinion, what is the most/least diverse field of photography?:
Least diverse, definitely nature/animal photography. Most diverse, I would say music.
What do you consider the biggest hurdle for Black photographers today?
Being trusted. I feel like because it’s not many black photographers shooting on a major level we aren’t trusted to fulfill the vision of major campaigns/production. A lot of companies play it safe during the hiring process but safe for them, a lot of times means white because that’s what’s been hired for so long.
Instagram: @jabarijacobs
Twitter: @JabariJacobs
