DETROIT – Photographer Jeremy Deputat has collected some unbelievable Uniquely Detroit memories.
"I feel like the city is better than a Hollywood backlot," he said.
Deputat's love for magazines, music and album art led him to photography. He got his start at Real Detroit Weekly around 2002. He was promoted up to the art director position, but due to low budgets, he found himself stuck with subpar photographs to design the layout around.
He took matters into his own hands and started shooting pictures for the weekly.
"I went to Best Buy, got the sweetest $100 point-and-shoot I could get," Deputat said. "I would know how I needed to shoot it in order to lay it out correctly."
When it was a time for a career change, he took a chance and headed out west to Los Angeles.
One contact he had worked with at Real Detroit was Dennis Dennehy at Interscope Records.
"I kind of bum rushed Dennis' desk. I was like, 'Dennis! I'm here! Yo, I'm ready to work,'" Deputat said.
Dennehy hooked Jeremy up with The Game, who had a new record dropping at the time. That led to connecting Deputat to Detroit's Eminem.
"I really owe everything to Dennis Dennehy," Deputat said.
What makes a good photographer?
"Being able to capture the moment, and being ready," Deputat said.
Who really hammered home that lesson to him? Kid Rock.
"I just remember him saying to me one night, 'Look, you're slow as hell and if you don't speed it up you're not going to get anything,'" Deputat said. "He really pushed me to always be ready and shoot fast."
His favorite shot? He couldn't pick one, but ... "The shot that I captured with Marshal and Rick Rubin, that was definitely a moment in my career."
Check out Deputat's work along with 11 other talented photographers at Inner State Gallery this Friday night for the Trust the Shooter show.