Life & Work with Jay, The Villain

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jay, The Villain. 

Hi Jay, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I am a portrait, music/concert, lifestyle, sports, car photographer, video director with a dash of graphic design and a sprinkle of casting director. My photography journey started in 2018 right after I started graphic design the year before. I’ve always had a creative eye and knew how to use it even before I was able to buy equipment, but once I was able to buy the equipment I needed, things just took off from there. Photography is a very much an outlet for me, I’ve seen so much growth in it for my work and my myself, it’s helped me overcome a lot more than what people think and I’m grateful for the people I have, the models I have and the places I’ve gone, and I can’t wait for when I have big-name deals hit my feet and to add that to my long story of my career. 

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It’s been a smoother road than some other people but I’m blessed to say that, blessed that I have people around me to push me or throw me a bone here and there so I can progress my career but I’m still ways away from where I want to be but right now I definitely on the high end of my career. Obstacles I think would have been the pandemic, that hurt a lot of us because we had so much planned for 2020 just for us to be locked in the house for 3+ month but a lot of us bounced back from that and hit the ground running, especially me, I had a few shoots during the lockdown but with only people I knew so it would be easier to track our movements to be safer around 

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I can’t be put in a box when it comes to photography, I’ve shot concerts, portraits, cars, clothing, models, parties, rappers, etc I love it all. I think I became known for shooting parties, I started at this bar/club in Detroit called “Barter” a lot of the local artists would come there to see the DJ’s play like Just Shacoi, Sky Jetta, Disc Jockey George, DJ Killa Squid to name a few (all of those people I’ve developed relationships with). I loved the look of film photography at night and flash photography with film grain and film burns, always had a 90’s feel to it and I knew how to replicate that in my editing, so that became my style when shooting at night in general and I still do it now. 

Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
This is an interesting question because I don’t think I have one, lol not that I didn’t have a good childhood but that I just can’t really pick a favorite….maybe in ’09 I was able to see a live show of Monday Night Raw (yes, I’m a huge wrestling fan), my dad was close friends with Kwame Kilpatrick (former mayor of Detroit) he [Kwame] gave us suit box tickets, the whole night was great but 1 thing stood out for me was seeing Jeff Hardy win the Intercontinental Championship vs Umaga, that was WILD for me to see live. 

Contact Info:

• Email: jmoneyj12@gmail.com
• Website: www.jaythevillain.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jmoneyj12/?hl=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo0DNv9QC3DhjO-2QHDff6Q