Jacob Blickenstaff (b. 1979) grew up in St. Louis and moved to New York in 1997 initially to pursue a career in music but transitioned into photography, where he (unsurprisingly) gravitated back towards music as a central point of interest and inspiration. He’s contributed images to over 50 album projects including notable covers for Natalie Merchant, Makaya McCraven, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, The Cactus Blossoms, Joe Jackson an

In 2024, Jacob launched That Million Dollar Bash, an intimate photo essay-driven Substack that chronicles his encounters with a broad spectrum of today’s musical luminaries. He lives in Brooklyn Heights with his wife, June, and maintains a photo studio in the Vinegar Hill neighborhood.d John Pizzarelli. In the 2010s, he photographed numerous culture assignments for The New York Times, visually complimenting the writing of leading cultural critics. His photo essays have been published in The New York Times, NPR, Rolling Stone and Mother Jones, and in 2009 the Stax Museum of American Soul Music presented a solo exhibition Still Life In Soul that explored the culture and history of soul music. He is currently working on a book that surveys his seven years of intimate documentary images of soul singer Sharon Jones.