We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mari Giacopelli a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Mari, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

As a LGBTQ+ photographer, making work that relates to my sexual and gender identity will always be a priority. This usually manifests in collaborating with other queer artists and models, but for one of my last series’ before graduation, I decided to step outside of my comfort zone, and explore self-portraits. For years, I avoided this type of photography. I wasn’t sure how my commercial roots would translate to fine art photography, and outside of that I worried that I simply didn’t know how to exist in front of the camera, translating my three dimensional figure to a two dimensional frame. Nonetheless, I began my project entitled “Girlhood,” which would become a series of self portraits and stills that I felt represented my experience of growing up as a young girl, and growing out of femininity. My self portraits are intentionally nontraditional, with elements like blur and grain distorting my face and body to reflect my conflicting feelings about my body and gender. Another important element of this project is vanity in the age of the internet, emphasized in this project by mirrors, cameras, and “selfie culture” overall. The creation and execution of “Girlhood” validated my existence outside of the fashion and commercial realm of photography as not only an artist, but a queer artist, and therefore is my most meaningful project.

Mari, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Mari Giacopelli, and I am a fashion photographer based out of Chicago, IL. I’ve been obsessed with fashion since I can remember. By fourth grade, I had a collection of hats, dresses, and most importantly, shoes, that overflowed my closet. I was wearing fingerless gloves in the middle of August just so I could have the “coolest” outfit on the first day of school. In short, I’ve loved fashion and dressing myself since before I understood basic math. On the other hand, I first started photography when I was 18, taking a digital photography class as an elective in college. It was in this class that I realized I could make money from this hobby, especially when combining it with my interest in fashion.

I now have a bachelor’s degree from Columbia College Chicago, and I’m pursuing my own photography business, coined as JPEGMARI. I provide photography services to small brands based in Chicago, as well as assisting other photographers in the city, always trying to gain more experience and expertise in my field. Outside of fashion, I also provide headshots, portraits, event photography, and more.

My style is all about color, nostalgia, texture, and wide angle. My goal is to emulate the beauty and raw texture of film in my digital photos using photoshop as a more accessible alternative. This filmy aesthetic is emphasized by the clothes that I shoot, which are often inspired by 90’s and 00’s trends. Adding the spherical, wide angle aspect to my work puts a modern twist on these vintage looking photos, and makes for a unique style that’s specific to me.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I love watching my clients discover their work in a photographic setting. My favorite businesses to work with are smaller businesses, because it’s so rewarding to watch them see the clothes they make translate to a high fashion shoot, legitimizing their artistry. I also love taking portraits for the same reason. iPhone pictures simply can’t compare to a studio shoot, and seeing people discover how their beauty translates to a picture is always fulfilling for me.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I started building my audience on Instagram, promoting every one of my business posts on my personal instagram. As a result, most of my followers in the beginning were just people that I knew from high school or college. Once I had a basic following, I started using hashtags to get my work to reach other audiences, and in fact my most loyal and longstanding client discovered me on the “chicagofashion” Instagram hashtag. From there, I made sure to connect on Instagram with ANYONE who I met on a job. It’s also very important to stay active on Instagram, liking and commenting on other people’s posts so that in turn, they’re more likely to like and comment on yours.

More recently, I’ve created a website to accompany my instagram, where people can view my work in a more curated setting, and discover me online. To gain traction on my website, I’ve added metatags into the coding of my site, and put key words like Chicago, fashion, photographer, and my own name to file names for search optimization.      

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jpegmari.com
• Instagram: @jpegmari
• Linkedin: Mari Giacopelli