Jason Joseph

I was born in N.Y.C.  in a borough, lots of trees, lots of exposure to the city. Balance.

My three earliest memories:

• Emerging from the Battery Tunnel with my face nearly pressed against the windshield gazing up at the Twin Towers, with the sense that anything in the world was possible.
• Exploring my family’s massive music collection and feeding the turntable everything from Dean Martin to Black Sabbath, Eric Clapton to Yes.. to Zappa.. back to Billy Joel. Kung Fu Fighting was my first noted favorite song.
• Using the camera my aunt bought me on my 8th birthday to take photos of my friends. Waiting for film to get back from the lab was only surpassed by the angst of waiting for Santa each year. I was hooked.

I learned to play guitar a bit, learned to play the drums… a lot. Can’t play the violin no matter how hard I try. I went to a really really cool… really really really expensive N.Y.C. art school. Yawnnnnn. Moved to Florida….lived on the beaches of two gorgeous islands.. slept on the sand every full moon. Worked for people who had bigger cameras than me…. ran around on film sets… impressed a few directors.I watched those twin beauties I’d gawked at, face pressed against the windshield as a lil guy with a cap gun in my back pocket…..crumble. I decided, things that make you say wow… whether they are the things that do it to you at 8 years old.. or the things that do it to you at 38 years old…. are the only things that matter… and that everything, and everyone matters…..Moved back home to New York, to make wow… wow for kids from 8 to 108. I shoot in digital.. I dig film. I really dig wine. I believe life can be surmised as vibrations. Light, music.. you, me… all just vibrations. Positive or negative….just vibrations. I put more hours into work than I’ll admit to you.. or likely bill you for… it’s not work… it’s personal. I have no food allergies, love camping and the great outdoors…. can wield a kayak like an Eskimo. I travel well. So does my gear. I’ve broke bread with some really rad international celebrities, some textbook ‘cool’ people, and I’ve spent the night with the homeless people in Penn Station (recently) no camera, just me and the brethren of people who make their home there, bonding. I cherish neither experience more than the other.

Namaste

~j.j.