Jeremy Cowart, 230 Franklin Road, Suite 903, Franklin, TN (2026)

10/03/2026

Something magical happened last night. I’ll never forget it.

I’ve had this talk about light brewing in me for years. I’ve given versions of it as a TEDx Talk, and TED even featured my 2024 version on their YouTube channel.

But it never felt fully finished.

It’s felt like a sculpture I’ve been slowly chipping away at for years. And last night, I think I finally got to see the finished work.

At the end, I do an experiment with the audience.

First, everyone turns on their phone flashlight and points it at themselves. I take a photo.

Then I ask them to turn that exact same light toward each other.

I take another photo.

The difference honestly blew me away.

In the first image, everyone is illuminated, but the light is harsh. Everyone looks isolated. You can barely see the people around you because you’re literally being blinded by your own light.

And everyone around you is left in the dark.

Then we made the second photograph.

Same people.
Same room.
Same phones.
Same light.

The only thing that changed was where they pointed it.

And look what happened.

Everyone looks like angels.

All those tiny harsh lights suddenly became this beautiful soft light because everyone was spreading it everywhere.

And look at the smiles. Pure joy.

But my favorite part?

Everyone is blurry.

When we’re busy lighting each other, no one gets to be the focus.

It’s not about me anymore.

It’s about us.

Me vs. us.
Isolation vs. community.
Selfish vs. selfless.
Success vs. significance.
Attention vs. impact.
Being seen vs. seeing others.

And lighting each other isn’t complicated.

It’s every email you send. Every comment you leave. How you wake up your kids. Forgiving someone who never asked. Noticing someone who feels invisible.

I think we can all agree the world has gotten darker.

But maybe it didn’t get darker because the dark got stronger.

Maybe it got darker because we stopped pointing our light at each other.

Last night, a room full of people proved how quickly that can change.

Same light.

Just pointed in a different direction.

Keep shining. ❤️

(Swipe through the entire carousel to see the moment)

Me vs. us.
Isolation vs. community.
Selfish vs. selfless.
Succe

09/21/2026

I’m still not over the loss of Duncan Sheik.

The loss of Dolly hit unbelievably hard. She was woven into our culture. And as someone born in downtown Nashville and a lifelong Tennessean, losing Dolly felt surreal. I went to Dollywood the year it opened in 1986.

But Duncan is different for me.

His music was the soundtrack to my life for a decade. From his debut record to Humming, Phantom Moon, Daylight, the rare live records, hard-to-find singles, demos... I couldn’t get enough.

I’ve probably never shared this many photos from one shoot before haha. But I just can’t stop reminiscing on this one.

Looking back, this shoot feels like peak Duncan. Right before White Limousine. Right before his foray into Broadway and musical theater. Since his passing, I’ve looked through so many other shoots of him, and I keep realizing how special this one was. The timing. The city. Where he was creatively. Where I was creatively.

It feels like a little time capsule, so I keep sharing more. It just feels right to put more of these photos into the world.

Through Duncan, I found so much music that shaped me too. He was obsessed with Jeff Buckley, Nick Drake, The Smiths and Radiohead. His obsessions became mine. I’m still a fan because Duncan pointed me in their direction.

That’s one of the wildest things about artists. They don’t just give you their work. They become doorways into entire worlds you might’ve never discovered otherwise.

It’s also been so sweet connecting with other Duncan fans through these posts. Even OG fans from the messageboard days 😂 Wild how one artist can bring people back together.

And it’s made me wonder...

Who is your modern-day Duncan?

Who are you completely obsessed with right now? The artist where you know every song, every deep cut, every weird unreleased track?

Or does that happen less now?

Music is so fragmented today. We have access to everything, all the time. Maybe that abundance has made it harder for one artist to completely own a chapter of our lives the way they used to.

I don’t know.

I just can’t stop listening to these Duncan records.

And I’m realizing all over again how deeply his art informed mine.

Forever grateful.

09/19/2026

Not sure why I didn’t share this photo of Duncan yesterday, because honestly, this is THE shot from our time together.

I’ve always called it “the angel shot.”

And the crazy thing is, it was semi-accidental.

I was super early in my photography career and definitely had a thing for symmetry. We stepped into this passageway at the Irish Hunger Memorial in Battery Park City and I immediately loved everything about it. The lines. The light. The repetition. I just had Duncan start walking toward me.

I slowed my shutter down a bit to let all that ambient light pour in behind him, and I bounced my on-camera flash off the ceiling to light his face.

What I hadn’t noticed yet was that little circular vent directly above his head.

Then I looked at the back of my camera and absolutely freaked out.

“OMG YOU’RE AN ANGEL!!!”

😂

The tunnel had given him wings. The vent had given him a halo. And somehow, without planning any of it, everything lined up.

I knew immediately we had the shot.

This image went on to become one of the hallmark photographs of my early portfolio. My agent in Hollywood put it right at the front of my book, and I have no doubt this image played a real part in opening doors and kickstarting my career.

But none of it happens if I don’t walk up to Duncan after a concert and somehow find the courage to say, “I want to photograph you.”

That one ask led to me getting on a plane to New York. It led to this photograph. It led to friendship. And ultimately, it became part of the story of my own career.

Always take the risk. Always make the ask.

The worst they can say is no.

I’m sitting in my studio again today with Duncan’s music playing on repeat. And man, he was soooo much more than “Barely Breathing.” His songwriting, his melodies, his art, all of it got into my bones at such a formative time in my life.

His art helped shape my art.

And somehow I got the gift of knowing the human behind it too.

Forever grateful for this photograph. Forever grateful for the friendship. Forever grateful for Duncan.

09/18/2026

I’m honestly in disbelief. We’ve lost another extraordinary talent. It’s just too much.

I don’t even know where to begin with Duncan Sheik.

In college, I subscribed to BMG, where they’d ship you CDs every month haha. I’ll never forget hearing Duncan for the first time. He instantly became the soundtrack to my life.

Then it became a full blown obsession 😂 I’d scour little CD stores looking for demos, singles, imports, anything. I went to shows. Got his autograph. Eventually he played the Belcourt in Nashville and I found myself professing my undying love to him lol.

I even told him I was on his MESSAGEBOARDS.

Remember those?? Yeah. I’m old.

But somehow I built up the nerve to tell him I wanted to photograph him.

Next thing I knew, I was on a plane to New York.

I went to his loft and spent a couple days with him. Just me and one of my heroes, walking NYC, talking, making portraits.

Even typing that now feels insane.

This carousel is from that trip.

Duncan wasn’t just an artist I admired. For years, he was my #1 favorite artist. His music lived alongside my life. Relationships. Heartbreak. Dreams. Growing up. Becoming an artist myself.

And oddly enough, I JUST messaged him a couple weeks ago because I saw he’d been in Franklin. I never heard back. I had no idea what he was going through.

And now he’s gone.

He’s now the fifth person I’ve photographed that we’ve lost recently.

But I keep thinking about what an unbelievable gift this life has given me. Over and over again, I’ve been allowed into people’s lives for these windows of time. Sometimes an hour. Sometimes a day. Sometimes just the length of a photograph.

And I’m realizing more and more that photographs aren’t really about freezing time.

They’re evidence that time happened at all.

That two human beings crossed paths for a moment. That someone stood in front of me, breathing and laughing and creating and completely alive.

And somehow I got to be there.

What an honor it is to intersect with another human life at all.

Life is so unbelievably short, y’all.

Tell people what they mean to you. Take the picture. Send the message. Don’t wait.

Rest easy, Duncan. Thank you for the soundtrack. ❤️

09/08/2026

I feel like I need to re-introduce myself because everyone thinks I’m just a photographer.

Truth is, I currently have ELEVEN very active careers 😂

Here we go.

🏨 THE PURPOSE HOTEL — Believe it or not, it’s alive and well. Brand new vision, same OG social-good foundation. We recently put an offer on a building downtown. Amazing team around me. Insane momentum. I’ve worked relentlessly on this all summer.

🪞 HUMATHY.COM — The beta is already making everyone cry. It’s an intense, beautiful look in the mirror. But where it’s going… relationships, marriages, dating, vocation, family dynamics. I think this could be massive.

🧠 LLOP — The corporate version of Humathy. Businesses, churches, influencers, speakers, musicians… deeply understand your employees, audience, followers and customers as actual humans. Went live TWO DAYS AGO haha. Link in bio.

🎤 SPEAKING — Traveling all over this fall giving my keynote, “The Light We Let In” — comparing the human body to the camera body and how the light we let in creates the image that comes out of us.

❤️ — My nonprofit. My heartbeat. My passion. We’re about to turn my studio storefront into the first ever If You’re Breathing Store.

📸 COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHY — Yep. Still doing it!

🧪 THE PORTRAIT LAB — Still shooting. Come see me.

🎨 FINE ART — Lots of news coming soon.

💡 LIVE EVENTS — My first ever “concert of ideas.” Aiming for November in Franklin. More soon.

🌎 THOUGHT BATON — A global Q&A photography project with photographers already lined up around the world. This is going to be special.

And the wildest part?

ALLLLLL of this connects.

It’s not 10 random careers.

It’s one ecosystem.

More on that soon.

Anyway, this sounds like one big braggy post but the intent is the opposite. All of this is brutal. Truly. Just trying to spread the word on all my idea babies. ♥️

09/08/2026

Who’s next?

09/08/2026

Let’s play… Name that country singer… (yes he has a new country record out)

09/07/2026

This man once hired me for 7 photoshoots in a row. It was epic. Can’t believe I got to hang so much with the one and only Garth.

09/06/2026

Do you ever have one of those Sunday mornings where you’re like “Gosh I just wish I could see a photo of Joe Jonas looking longingly into the distance as he journals in his notebook.”?

Well, I have good news…

Jeremy Cowart

10/03/2026

09/21/2026

09/19/2026

09/18/2026

09/08/2026

09/08/2026

09/08/2026

09/07/2026

09/06/2026

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