Detroit, MI

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Photographer, entrepreneur, innovator…Airbnb magnate? Jesse David Green is an Earthmover with the intrinsic ability to make the unconventional seem like the next natural step. He’s built a career out of following his instinct, and it’s continually kept him on the edge of what’s “next”.

Jesse started dabbling with photography at age 15, shot his first wedding a year later, and had decided to make it his life before he was out of high school. Since then his enthusiasm has only intensified, and it’s given him an eye for opportunity.

At 19, he founded a creative agency that packaged photographic work with web design. He was an early adaptor to Airbnb and currently has 4 rental properties around the state of Michigan (including a newly built quonset hut that’ll blow your mind). He built a photo-booth product that was years ahead of its time. And photo by photo, shoot by shoot he has contributed to a growing aesthetic style in his hometown of Detroit that’s helping to define its resurgence.

His passion now lies in shooting artists and makers “in the light in which they exist.” He goes to their workshops and studios, and he captures the everyday hard work for which Detroit is famous. It’s a raw and honest process that’s fitting for his hometown, and the work he’s produced has been used round the world as a testament that Detroit isn’t going anywhere.

Jesse David Green has never been afraid to follow his instinct even as it leads him towards the new and the unexpected. He’s an Earthmover because his work lets him share what he finds out on these edges with the rest of us.

Photo courtesy of Hayden Stinebaugh