About Jess
Clients
Adidas • Black Diamond Equipment • BAE • Barilla Pasta • Dante Alighieri Language Schools, Italy • Degree Deodorant • DeLaRonde Forge • Exxon Mobil • Gibbs Smith Publishing • Hoka One One • Instructure • Key Professional Media • New Balance • People Magazine • Playboy Magazine • Puma Golf • Salt Lake Magazine • Salt Lake City Weekly • Sportcourt • Thomson/Reuters • University of Mississippi Medical Center • USPS • Verisign • Verizon
Live it
Every damn day!
Ten things about me
1. Besides photo, studied Italian Art and Language and lived in Italy for a short time.
2. Did Gunfight and Mountain-man reenactments when I was in my teens.
3. I’m a rabid river rat, and I will turn down jobs for river trips.
4. I love to sing and play guitar, mostly for friends around campfires.
5. I’ve always had a dog until this last summer. I currently look after a feral cat named Jon Snow.
6. I rescued a swan during the pandemic.
7. Avid traveller, and love the southern Utah desert more than words can describe.
8. Have a second-degree black belt in American Kenpo.
9. Met my wife on a blind date.
10. My love for photography started in the darkroom.
Thank you
I couldn’t be where I am without all the help from so many people along the way:
From Ed Rosenberger and Kate Catillaz who gave me my first job out of photo school, and showed me the business, to Erik Ostling who took me under his wing for many years. Then to Adamski- Peek photography who gave me an immense opportunity to showcase my talent with big clients.
Along with so many others; The amazing team of individuals who always had my back; from photo assistants and digital techs, to stylists, PA’s and production companies. It takes a village, and I’m extremely grateful for all the talented people who made my job easy.
“Live life and the world will give you images”
As someone who doesn’t like to talk highly of himself, as to not sound like an ass. Where does one begin to talk of creativity and passion in ones work, so as to be hired, so that I can continue to slack off as much as possible…? One of my favorite quotes from Henri Cartier-Bresson;
“You live, and life will give you pictures.
You can’t live for photography,
you have to take pictures because it fills you with life”.
The best part of photography is being able to capture, impact and create culture. I didn’t enter into photography because I was a great writer. I entered because I hyper-visulize the entire world, which at times, can be absolutely exhausting. I’ve always romanticized photography, striving for that perfect moment that says it all. I think of my work as thoughtful chaos: That moment perfectly captured with passion in a style that most hadn’t thought to approach. Absolutely love collaborating with creative people, and happy to get weird.
My photo-visual education began in high school, followed by years of photographing for various magazines, working in photo labs processing and printing, and asking photo questions exhaustingly to anyone with any knowledge. I finished my degree in Visual art and Design with an emphasis in Photography from the Salt Lake Community College in 2000 and my bachelors in Art History from the University of Utah in 2007. Worked at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts for a few years, taught photography for a year at the community college, all the while doing photo and video shoots.
For the past 15 plus years I’ve been a part of photo/video crews that have produced lifestyle and product catalog images for Athleta, New Balance, Adidas, Taylormaid, Hoka One One, Black Diamond, Kuhl, to name a few, traveling to countries all over the world from Croatia, Italy, Panama, and Costa Rica to New Zealand and Australia.
jess@jessphoto.com