Hello

I'm Jonathan Chapé, a portrait photographer based in Portland, Oregon. I came here from New York/New Jersey seven years ago and the Pacific Northwest remade me as a person and as an artist.

I believe creative expression is medicine for the soul. My work uses the camera as both mirror and ritual. A way of staying honest about what it means to exist inside a body, inside a life. I trained in studio lighting and retouching in Brooklyn, and I've spent a decade making that practice on myself in fields, on floors, in water. “Witness” is what that looks like.

I shoot on both digital and medium format film, including a Mamiya c330 I found, fell in love with, and changed my appreciation of capturing light. It slowed me down in the best way. It made me stop making images for someone and start making them for myself.

When I work with other people, I'm looking for the same thing I look for in my own work: the moment someone stops performing and simply is. Great portraiture is a collaboration. Not just with the person in front of my camera, but everyone who made the shoot possible. My ideal clients are people who understand the value of taking up space and being looked at.

I'm not here to make you look good. I'm here to make you feel seen.

Available for portraiture, editorial, exhibition, and publication.
For inquiries, reach out directly.

Images that are still 100% human made.