Meet Jay Koepke | Owner Jay Cupcake Photography

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jay Koepke and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jay, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I operate with a ‘leap and the net will appear’ philosophy. I trust my gut, I take big leaps. My answer would be completely the opposite in another career but I’m trying to make impactful art, so if it’s not risky, what’s the point?

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Right now my passion project is portrait photography, and specifically queer portrait photography. My husband and I moved to Colorado in 2020 from Chicago, so it’s been… interesting… trying to meet people and get to know a new area during covid quarantine. But there is a vibrant queer community in Colorado – and I’ve been inviting them over to my studio / garage to make art! It’s been a blast creating beautiful portraits, especially of local drag queens in Denver.

These portraits stand alone but I’ve also been using them to create photographic collages: pieces of a dozen different faces stitched together to create a new face, a new identity, a new community, a new “us”.

I’ve been working in theatre my whole life. I was a stage manager for a long time and then I went to grad school for playwriting. It was after grad school when I was working for a talent agency in Chicago that I started making actor headshots. This was a wonderful in to a huge pool of potential clients when I was learning. My photography is self-taught. Before I was charging $ I had access to more actors than I could count who wanted new headshots. (Then and now it was and is very helpful to create mutually beneficial situations.)

Now five years later I do portraits and headshots with much more skill. Three of my photographs are hanging in Colorado galleries. I recently vended at my first public art sale and now my pictures are hanging in the homes of strangers. What a dream! I also have a play going up as part of a festival in NYC this week. It’s been a nutty summer.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Like I mentioned, we’re relatively new to the area and we moved here during quarantine, so I’m exactly the person to go to for all the best local hangouts the tourists don’t know about. Here are my tips and tricks for visitors who want to succeed in Colorado:

#1 – HYDRATE
#2 – Sunrise at Red Rocks is worth waking up for
#3 – Palenque Cocina Y Agaveria in Littleton is the best Mexican restaurant

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My husband is the reason I ever bought a camera in the first place. “I think you might like taking pictures,” he said one day. Five years later here we are. Thanks, Jacob!

Website: www.jaycupcake.com

Instagram: @jay_cupcake

Image Credits
Jay Cupcake