Jesi Cason at Florida Museum of Photographic Arts in Ybor City, Florida on May 28, 2026. Credit: Dave Decker / Creative Loafing Tampa Bay

Contrary to the stereotype, goths look great in all colors of the rainbow. Just look at a new solo exhibition from photographer Jesi Cason.

The Saint Petersburg Month of Photography’s 2025 Photolaureate opened “Alt Tampa” (stylized “ALT Tampa”) in late-April and will talk about the vibrant show this Sunday, May 31 at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts in Ybor City.

A Fort Myers transplant and commercial photographer by day, the 40-year-old welcomed 61 people into her studio and came out with a hyperrealist, hyperfocused and vibrant portrait study of people who exist outside of Tampa’s mainstream.

“These are individuals who are just as much a part of the identity of this community as people who love to go to Bucs games and who love to do hot girl walks on Bayshore Boulevard,” Cason told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “But you might not notice them because we are certainly a minority in the city and in the overall story of Tampa Bay.”

But then again, Tampa is the birthplace of death metal, and home of the world-famous Castle nightclub just a block away from FMoPA where Cason’s photos are on display through June 14.

“People who love extreme music and extreme aesthetics and extreme art flocked to Tampa Bay over the past 50 years because of what was born here in the ’80s,” she added. “So that is what this show is ultimately about—it’s about this population that exists here under the surface, and how important I think they are to what makes Tampa Bay an interesting and special place to live.”

The folks captured in “Alt-Tampa” range in age from their early-20s to late-50s, Cason said. By day, they are corporate girlies, social workers, brewers, tattoo artists, elementary school IT directors, film students, indie record shop owners, potters, actors, jewelry designers, and more.

Each subject spent 30 minutes in the studio under the direction of Cason, who worked to get the best facial expressions into the frame and onto the walls of FMoPA where she’ll talk about the show on Sunday, May 31.

Twenty-five of the people photographed made it into their own individual frame, and 36 are on a giant grid on the north end of the exhibition.

Cason, a chronic overachiever who was named one of Creative Loafing Tampa Bay’s artists to watch in 2026, even made a glossy photobook and video component that is in the gallery, too.

“This is an incredibly diverse, vibrant, colorful, expressive population,” Cason said, noting that everyone seemed to have one thing in common.

“One thing that almost every single person that came into the studio said was how much they’re going to miss Crowbar,” she said, alluding to the legendary Ybor City venue that will close this summer after 20 years in the district. “It’s on everybody’s mind.”

Tickets to Jesi Cason’s “Alt Tampa” gallery talk on Sunday, May 31 are still available and start at $12 for the public.