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joe
Joe was made in Liverpool, one of four children to Rosario (a teenage bride of Italian heritage who ran the family business) and Joe senior (a former boxer, Royal Engineers, heating engineer).

Joe junior entered school (St Benets in Netherton) an innocent working-class catholic boy. After passing the entrance exam to a posh school in Crosby ('one swallow doesn't make a summer' observed St Benet's head generously) he was squidged out the other end a confused middle-class lapsed-catholic adolescent.

Joe left for London at 18, lured by weekly trawls of the New Musical Express. He went to college, left in the first term, fell in love with a girl out of his league (a habit he has yet to kick) and never went home.

Joe embarked on a tech career while playing in indie bands (5 O'Clock Club, The Ringing, Ugly as Sin). He picked up on sound engineering at gigs and early desktop publishing tech from freelance writing jobs.

A temp job at an architects practice in Camden led to an IT Director role developing office networks and CAD/CAM systems and designing brochures and books. Side note: practice leader was Royal Academician Ted Cullinan so Joe had two pieces of work shown at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in this period ('one swallow').

When the internet happened Joe jumped ship to start a web agency. His first website was for Sadlers Wells Theatre, followed by sites for revered indie labels 4AD, Beggars Banquet and XL Recordings. Early sites were hand-coded in HTML and designed in Photoshop, which remains on his laptop to this day for photo editing.

 

Joe's passion for photography was sparked by travel. He picked up a basic 'point-and-shoot' camera for a road trip to California in 2006 and was captivated. On subsequent trips the camera became as essential as a passport, something you don't leave home without.

After California he visited New York State, Southern Europe, Thailand and Japan, pushing the envelop on each trip to find the essence of a place with the camera. The 'point-and-shoot' was traded in for SLRs and prime lenses for trips to Marrakech, Cuba and Madagascar.

Punk photography

Joe was a punk in his teenage years and brings some of that attitude to his photograpy.  He is self taught and has a DIY aesthetic, walking into scenes on spec to make images with whatever is at hand (natural light and no props). The heroes of his street work are everyday people. Shot without permission but always with respect. 

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joe in france

Joe draws inspiration from classic street and documentary photographers - Brassai, Cartier-Bresson, Bill Brandt, Gary Winogrand, Vivien Maier, Diane Arbus and Martin Parr - and from masters of landscape like Ansel Adams and Sebastião Salgado.

His work mixes candid street with atmospheric landscapes and dreamscapes from home and abroad. Road trips are a core part of the practice, using Leicas and an old Honda for getting around. Early morning beach walks with camera have become a habit since moving to Deal (from where you can see France ...).   

Joe has three children, two motorbikes and three Leicas.

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