Meet the Man Behind Bogey Boys' Carefully Crafted Image
Photographer and cinematographer Jake Magraw on working with Macklemore, his journey into golf and more.
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Introducing Shotmakers, a new series that explores the modern world of golf photography and how the people who comprise it are redefining the game’s visual language.
In 2018 Jake Magraw directed a music video for Macklemore for the song “How To Play The Flute.” Little did Magraw know, a few years later he would be with Macklemore, who he calls by his real name Ben, on a tour through Europe. In between sold out shows in Italy, Switzerland and France, Ben and a few other members of the closely knit group called the “bogey boys” were learning how to play golf. Truthfully, they weren’t just learning how to make a small white object fly through the air though, they were learning how to build a brand.
Over the last few seasons Bogey Boys has emerged as one of an elite group of micro brands that are reimagining what golf can look like. And although Macklemore has been the face and leader of Bogey Boys, Magraw has also been there from the beginning. The relationship between the two, as Magraw describes, thrives off a mutual appreciation for each others’ talents. Ben, the architect. Jake, the interpreter.
JMDM Creative, Magraw’s professional alter-ego, had a circuitous route to golf a bit like a double dogleg par-5 winding through trees. After “bouncing around community colleges” he found a two-year commercial photography program in Seattle where he connected with one of Macklemore’s original tour photographers. That parlayed into a chance to work with the Seattle musician, and with each successful tour documented and music video directed, Magraw would become one of Macklemore’s most trusted producers.
Later on, Magraw leveraged his credibility through Bogey Boys and his past experience in studio photography to open up even more opportunities in the golf space, working with golf brands Cleveland and Srixon. In the first edition of our new series Shotmakers, we uncovered an individual journey that’s emblematic of golf’s modern renaissance.
Jake Magraw
Jake Magraw
Jake Magraw
Jake Magraw
Having worked with Macklemore on his music videos and tours, how did that transition into golf and Bogey Boys?
Jake Magraw: I think the big transition was him having kids, he was having a family and I think that changed his life. He wasn’t going to have as much spare time to be constantly gone. So when Ben fell in love with golf, we started playing it on tour, because we’re in Europe a lot and we can go to some beautiful spots.
There was a group of us, we were just not really great at golf yet, and that’s where Bogey Boys really came from. We were just happy making bogeys and we were celebrating if we made a par.
Is it important to show that amateur side to the sport?
We’re all hoping for that one perfect swing, but that’s a pro’s reality, that’s not our reality. And I think what we did well early on with Bogey Boys was to not just film us hitting good shots, but to film us missing shots too. Obviously you don’t want to make the sport look like a joke, but it’s our reality.
Again, we’re just happy to hit the green and I think a lot of people were scared to show that because it shows you’re not good at golf. But now it’s shifting into a place where you can have fun with it. You should have fun with it.
“The clothes made sense, the way I was shooting them made sense.”
So how were you able to make the transition to shooting golf?
I’m pretty lucky that Ben is one of those guys who has ride or dies, and he works with those people and is very loyal to those people. I tell people a lot that I definitely got opportunities from him. But you also have to be ready for those opportunities. You have to position yourself so when you get the opportunity you can seize it and turn it into something even bigger.
I was in a spot in my personal art where I was feeling confident about what I wanted my stuff to look like, and it felt different to what other people were doing in the golf space. I felt like it was a good time for me to come in and make it look a little different, and I think it really worked well with what Ben was creating stylistically.
Obviously there’s a vintage aspect to everything he was doing at that time, and the style that I was leaning into was a film and vintage look. So I think those paths crossed and molded together really well. The clothes made sense, the way I was shooting them made sense. It was just a great opportunity to start there, and then that escalated as Bogey Boys started to ramp up.
Is that creative direction part of how Bogey Boys stands out?
Other companies will cycle through photographers and use different people. And my perfect vision is that people see Bogey Boys’ images and they know it’s us.
I was pretty lucky to have someone who could steer that ship in that direction. Even on the music side, Ben always had a lot of input visually and he’s very good at it, that’s why he and I get along. He understands how to tell me what he’s thinking.
Not a lot of people who run brands understand that. They don’t know how to communicate to the people who are creating content. And that becomes a problem when you have to ask yourself ‘Am I telling their story? Am I telling it correctly? Am I representing their brand correctly?’ And I think that was the benefit to Ben and I having a relationship where I can just feel what he’s thinking and shoot it.
Jake Magraw
Jake Magraw
Jake Magraw
Jake Magraw
Product photography has evolved really quickly now that brands understand they have to cultivate an image. Has that allowed you to shine in this space?
I mean that’s the exact conversation I had with the guy that I work with closely at Cleveland. For a long time brands thought ‘we’ll just use CGI clubs.’ And when I first talked to him I told him I thought that was weird. You’re buying a physical product and you go to the website and it gives you no representation of what the club feels like or it looks like.
Visually it looks like people aren’t trying, the attitude is basically ‘we got this digital thing made, now let’s throw it over our whole website.’ And again I was lucky to have a collaboration with him where we could talk about it and try to make that product photography cooler.
Product photography is like fashion in that sense, it needs to appeal to younger people. Traditional golfers don’t care about product photography, they’re going to buy the clubs as long as it performs. But people like us are going to care if it looks cool and it was branded well. We care about that stuff because we grew up in an era where that’s just what we were into.
The behind-the-scenes of those shoots are funny because you see the setup and it looks like a little movie set, but the final result makes everything seem so much bigger.
There’s a good one from a Srixon campaign that we did because we used a bunch of LED lights, it was one of my favorites for sure. And then you look at the BTS and it’s just this tiny world with LEDs going everywhere. It was one of those cool ones where we definitely tried something different and I thought we hit a pretty solid home run with it.
I used to steer away from product photography because you’re living in the studio and working with something so small and sometimes you just want to be outside. But it’s also fun, you really challenge yourself doing the lighting stuff.
Working with golf clubs is along the lines of working with perfume bottles. They’re really hard to shoot, they’re very reflective. There’s a lot going on and there aren’t a lot of ways to shoot them. So trying to make them look cool is part of the battle.
Jake Magraw
Jake Magraw
Jake Magraw
Jake Magraw
What have been some of your other favorite campaigns?
The adidas thing was pretty special with Bogey Boys. I think that our first campaign was pretty special too, just because it felt like a dream that it was all happening; all the years of just joking about Bogey Boys and then finally seeing it actually made.
But I think the adidas moment was really cool. I was really stoked for Ben and it was a really cool moment for me to be able to have my voice in that collaboration. Requesting Collin Morikawa to be part of our campaign was pretty epic.
What else would you like to do in the golf space going forward?
I think pushing forward to build that community and diversity in golf and the acceptance of it. While a lot has changed these last couple years and a lot of people are moving into this space, I still think the roots of golf are not super accepting of other people and certain aspects of what has been changing.
So I think it’s just keeping our foot on that pedal as far as changing that narrative and making it more approachable. It still feels unattainable because it’s pretty expensive in some ways, so just doing what I can in my space of shooting it and telling stories to help change that.
