Webster was raised in Midtown, an arts-friendly Atlanta suburb, by parents who worked respectively in healthcare and real estate. Encouraged by them, she recorded her first album at age 15—though she admits that she didn’t have much real-life experience with the emotional lyrics she was singing back then. After high school, she moved to Nashville to study songwriting at Belmont University. But she soon realized the program wasn’t worth it, and moved back home to Atlanta. “If you’re good at songwriting, you’re good at songwriting,” she says. “Going to a school for thousands and thousands of dollars isn’t going to help you.”

She continued to write songs and, by 2017, signed up with the local hip-hop misfits at Awful Records. That year, Webster released her self-titled debut album, a soulful offering heavily inspired by the country and western music she grew up listening to. Much of Webster’s success thus far as an artist has come from her willingness to ask for help, and the receptiveness of Atlanta’s musical community. A DM with Awful rapper Ethereal led to her relationship with the collective, and her work as a photographer benefits from the hospitality of ATL mainstays, too. She’s done shoots with everyone from Migos’ Offset to Lil Yachty, often placing them in front of surreal backgrounds and vibrant colors. When Webster photographed Killer Mike, the rapper let her paint his arms in a trippy black and gold pattern for two hours ahead of the shoot, despite having never met her beforehand.

Ethereal: “Moving Funny” [ft. Faye Webster] (via SoundCloud)

Webster says her dream photo subject is Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr., noting that she recently wrote a song about him. While she jokes she’s in love with Acuña, her obsession for the Braves expands beyond him. “Nothing in the world can give me that satisfaction of sitting in a fucking plastic seat at the Braves stadium watching baseball at 2 p.m.,” she says.

At one point during the day, Webster flicks on her Nintendo Switch, which she originally bought to watch Braves games. After she shows me how she’s played more than 405 hours of video games on the console in the last six months, I ask her what she’d be doing if she wasn’t having lunch with me in the middle of a Wednesday afternoon. “I’d be at home looking at Amazon for batting cages.”