About Jay Westcott

I have always had a passion for photography, but it wasn’t until I served in the U.S. Navy that I thought about pursuing it as a career. I worked with a Navy photographer and kept borrowing his camera. He finally said to me, “Jay, you need to go buy your own camera.”  Needless to say I did and left the Navy.

After a brief career in sales I pursued a degree in Photojournalism at The Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, DC. I am now a staff photographer at Politico, covering politics on Capitol Hill and the White House. Before Politico I was the lone staff photographer at TBD, a local news website covering the DC area.  I have worked as a photo tech/editor at The Washington Post and as a staff photographer at The Washington Examiner. Before joining TBD I spent three years freelancing for a variety of publications. My work has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, Politico, Newsweek, Time, Washingtonian Magazine and several other places, most notably my Mom’s refrigerator. When I’m not out shooting photos, I’m riding or racing my bicycle or hiking with my daughter Lauren.