Every October, celebrities flood social media with elaborate costumes, recreations of pop-culture icons, and moments so dazzling that they flip Halloween into what appears like a digital red-carpet occasion.
And someplace behind these viral celeb Halloween seems to be—Doja Cat as Cynthia Doll, Serena Web page and Kordell as Ms. B Haven and Mr. Freeze, Latto channeling Lil Kim—is Jacob Webster, the 27-year-old photographer turning the vacation into an artwork kind.
“I like that,” Webster says of Web page and Kordell’s viral 2025 Halloween seems to be as Ms. B Haven and Mr. Freeze from the campy 1997 movie “Batman and Robin.” “As a result of they dedicated!”
A Maryland native now primarily based in Los Angeles, Webster has turn into one of popular culture’s most in-demand movie star photographers. Recognized for his shiny, hyper-stylized portraits and artistic route, he has labored with stars like Keke Palmer, Doja Cat, and Lori Harvey, serving to to usher in a brand new period of Black visible storytelling.
“I do actually recognize that I’m in an area of, like, actually amplifying Black voices and Black tales,” he stated. “So the truth that individuals are wanting ahead to what I’m doing is even an honor in itself, and I believe it says lots about our creativity and our tales.”
Days after wrapping yet one more triumphant season of bringing well-known faces’ spooky desires to life, Webster sat down with TheGrio to debate how he has turn into the go-to photographer for celebrities.
“My ancestors are a part of why I do what I do,” he defined. “In my artistic journey and my images, I really feel like all of us form of maintain a by line to those that got here earlier than us.”
Webster’s artistic journey began when he was 14, taking pictures classmates after faculty in Silver Spring. Early on, he constructed buzz with reimagined photograph shoots—Toni Braxton album covers, Disney princesses, even a live-action “Rugrats” sequence that went viral in 2018.
“That was my first time that my stuff blew up on Twitter,” he recalled.
Though impressed by a few of the greats, like David LaChapelle and Annie Leibovitz, he didn’t need to construct a profession solely on recreating others’ concepts.
He added, “I needed it to be like my very own unique thought.”
His breakout second got here in 2021 after school, when he left Maryland for Los Angeles the day after commencement with no shoppers and no plan past his religion and drive.
“I really received a [tarot] studying achieved,” he admitted with amusing. “The man was like, don’t go away L.A. till after Halloween.”
On the time, he was broke, homesick, and questioning whether or not to return residence. However he stayed, and on Halloween that yr, every little thing modified when none aside from Doja Cat got here calling.
“The day I [first] did Halloween was once I did Doja Cat as Cynthia Doll,” Webster recalled. “It was actually full circle, as a result of I did the ‘Rugrats’ … and I had the Cynthia doll Barbie in there.”
The images went viral in a single day, immediately placing the artistic on the map. Since then, his identify has turn into synonymous with movie star imagery. Artists like Palmer now give him the reins on shoots.
“She’ll be like, ‘simply do your factor, like, no matter you need to do. I’ll do it,’” he stated, including, “Now I’m beginning to see that the extra artistic enter you’ve gotten as an artist, the higher it comes out … There’s a sure synergy.”
However Webster’s method isn’t simply inventive—it’s strategic.
“I’ve a really sturdy technique and strategic plan behind what I do,” he defined. “If I’m doing a shoot, I’m doing BTS of the glam, BTS of the surroundings, an interview, filming on totally different codecs. So it doesn’t matter what I do, one thing’s received to stay.”
That stability of creativity and calculation has made him one of many defining visible voices of his technology.
“When individuals see me, I echo my message and my intentions,” he stated. “I need to convey again sturdy imagery to popular culture. I work on the intersection of magnificence, style, and tradition … I encourage millennial creatives to seek out their voice by picture and content material creation.”
Requested about dream shoppers, Webster doesn’t hesitate: “All the time Rihanna or Zendaya,” he stated, already imagining the shoot.
“For Rihanna, I’d do ‘The Jetsons’ … and for Zendaya, ‘Bewitched.’ I can construct an entire world round it.”
Nonetheless, on the coronary heart of all of it is legacy.
He stated his final aim is, “All the time to, like I stated, honor those who got here earlier than us, and to amplify Black tales and voices.”
