The goal of my photography is to share my feelings at the moment the shutter opens. A photograph is a story waiting to be told, with emotions that materialize as one is drawn into the picture.

Joe was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, an old whaling town on the northeast coast. He enjoyed many years in New England, spending his summers on Cape Cod and his undergraduate physics years in Boston at Northeastern University . He took a year off from college and worked for an award-winning photographer as a dark-room tech. He worked with Speed Graphics, Rollei’s and 35mm cameras.

He started his career as a scientist with NASA Langley Research Center in 1964, while a college freshman. He really is a rocket scientist! He did his graduate work at Washington University in St. Louis, getting his PhD in Physics in 1975. Joe’s photographic interests were put on a back burner until after he retired from NASA in 2001. He is now Chief of Innovation for Applied Research Associates and balances his discretionary time to include extensive time with photography. In 2004, with encouragement from his wife, Berna, they set off on a safari with a new digital DSLR. His passion for photography was rekindled and is now a major force in his life. He works with a Canon 5D.

Joe competed for a National Geographic workshop and was selected as one of 54 participants from 14 different countries. He enjoyed a week working with Magnum photographer, David Alan Harvey, developing new capabilities in photojournalism. He won Best in Show at the Suffolk Museum 2008 Annual Photographic competition, received honorable mention in 2009, and his work was compared to that of Edward S. Curtis. He has been selected to exhibit in several Virginia Artists Exhibits at the Charles Taylor Museum . He is a member of This Century Art Gallery, has exhibited there often, and has held a one-person show in August 2010, entitled “People of the World” upon which his book is based. Joe has enjoyed the good fortune of becoming friends, and working with Virginia photojournalist Chiles Larson, co-teaching a photography class 2006-9 at the College of William and Mary, Wren Association, where Joe now teaches Photoshop.

He has exhibited in numerous juried shows including: Occasion for the Arts ( Williamsburg ), Art in the Park ( Richmond ), and Seawall Art Show ( Portsmouth ). His exhibits focus on his travel photojournalism: safaris ( Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Tanzania ), Morocco, Cambodia, Thailand, Central Europe, Peru, Egypt, France, India, the US West, and, of course, the very wild lands of Virginia and Williamsburg.

Joe aspires to create a language with his images. Each photograph can be part of a story, a series of images that weave an emotion, a feeling that goes beyond the visual scene. Working with images is a great pleasure, bringing together Joe’s rocket-science background and his passion for nature, art, and people. Life is good.