Starke Jett V, a graduate of the College of William and Mary, studied photography at the Rhode Island School of Design, and at Brooks Institute of Photographic Arts and Science in Santa Barbara, California. In 1991and 1992, he worked on a project documenting the watermen of the northern Neck of Virginia in association with the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Currently living in Reedville, VA, he does freelance editorial work for Chesapeake Bay Magazine, Wooden Boat Magazine, Soundings Magazine and other regional and national publications, and has been published in England’s Classic Boat magazine and other European boating magazines. He is also co-author of a book documenting Chesapeake Bay graveyards published by John Hopkins University Press called The Chesapeake Book of the Dead. He has also been featured in three other photography books, A Goodly Ship, Treasuring the Chesapeake, and Beacons of the Bay.

Starke’s artwork has been widely exhibited in shows in Santa Barbara, CA, Richmond, VA, Washington, D.C., Annapolis, MD, Charlottesville, VA, Warsaw, VA, and Reedville, VA. His work has won many awards for excellence, including awards from the Virginia Press Association, the Virginia News Photographer’s Association, and a gold medal from the International Regional Magazine Association, for a feature on the Chesapeake Bay log canoes. Lastly he manages a photography studio for portraits and commercial work, which is also a gallery for local artists located in the heart of historic Reedville, VA.