About

Jesse Goff was born in Berkeley, California, and raised in the coastal town of Santa Cruz, where wide open landscapes and towering oak trees were his first playgrounds. It was there, at the age of six, that his mother — an artist herself — handed him his first camera, a simple 35mm SLR loaded with black and white film. From that moment on, photography became a lifelong companion.

On location in Tokyo

On location at Francis Ford Coppola’s vineyard

Jesse’s early years were spent riding horses, racing sailboats, and exploring the natural beauty of California’s Central Coast. In high school, a vocational photography class gave him a deep technical foundation in darkroom printing, film processing, and camera mechanics—skills that would form the bedrock of his career.

Jesse studied psychology and art at university in Sonoma’s wine country, but photography quickly pulled focus. By the time college ended, he had already started taking paid assignments, setting the stage for a lifelong career behind the lens.

In San Francisco, Jesse built a thriving commercial photography business, working from a two-story downtown studio that featured twin shooting bays, a client lounge, and a roof deck with views of the city skyline. It was there he shot his first major advertising campaign—Jose Cuervo Tequila—which became his breakthrough moment in the industry.

Jesse & Francis Ford Coppola

Coppola shoot 12x12s

From architecture and panoramic work, Jesse’s focus soon expanded to fashion, lifestyle advertising, celebrity portraiture, and executive branding. His reputation for putting high-profile talent at ease—whether celebrities used to fawning attention, or C-suite executives with tight schedules—became a signature strength.

Jesse’s work has taken him around the world, including high-profile shoots for Apple, Google, Hilton, and Disney. From complex multi-day productions involving large crews to nimble documentary-style projects, Jesse’s ability to blend technical precision with creative spontaneity has made him a sought-after visual storyteller.

On location for Apple Computer

Portrait at studio in Sausalito, California

But Jesse is not just a photographer—he’s a lifelong printmaker. From his earliest darkroom prints to today’s meticulously calibrated large-format fine art printing, Jesse has always believed that a photograph isn’t complete until it’s a physical object. His studio’s color-managed workflow includes custom ICC profiling, spectrophotometers, and state-of-the-art fine art printers capable of producing gallery-scale prints with extraordinary accuracy and depth.

Today, Jesse balances his time between California and the French Riviera, where he continues to create commercial work while expanding his fine art practice through jessegoff.art. His French studio overlooks the Mediterranean, adding yet another layer of inspiration to his evolving body of work.

Office on the French Riviera