About joseph

Baltimore City
Joseph graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology in 1983, and has since been based in Baltimore, 3 miles from his birthplace. Joseph has shown his work in many local venues, as well as at Denise Bibro Gallery, the Woodward Gallery, and the Edward Carter Gallery in NYC.

Joseph was awarded a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards in 2007, 2009, and 2012, and is a 2007 Black Spider Award Nominee and his photographs are found in the following collections:
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2018

I look to the landscape to find meaning and succor to the thoughts and feelings in my mind.
"I photograph things for what they are and for what else they are.” – Minor White

I've used the ten project spaces to share 100 images that belong together in a body of work called Mindscapes.
Most of the images were made in 2016, and I continue my use of tree imagery as a metaphor to survey an emotional landscape.
I've made use of names, descriptions, and alternate and title text spaces within this BakerArtist website to provide verbal cues as a point of departure for the interpretation of the images.
There are very few prints made of these images. In fact, most have never been printed. This is a conscious decision on my part to bring my creative practice into the 21st century as a greener, less consumptive, art expression. At this point in time, it seems unlikely that I will ever return to inks and paper or even traditional photographic processes.
Right now, this feels right.
  • Invincibility
    Invincibility
  • ProdigalSon
    ProdigalSon
  • Island Tree
    Island Tree
  • To Become Visible
    To Become Visible
    To Become Visible
  • Missing Part
    Missing Part
    Missing Part
  • Disinformation I
    Disinformation I
  • Prisoner
    Prisoner
  • things change
    things change
    we adapt
  • I'm glad you're here
    I'm glad you're here
    to rest my head
  • disintegration
    disintegration

2018

In 2015, I started making stitched phone images and posting it to my social media pages. This was quite a departure from the traditional photography I was formally trained to perform, and the digital photography that I adopted because of marketplace pressures. This was supposed to be a hobby. But photography is not something I can do light-heartedly, and so I poured myself into it, as I have always done in my business and in my artwork, my other business.
The new practice did much more than provide an additional outlet for my creativity. It also called into question all of my previous behaviors. Suddenly I began to notice just how earth-unfriendly traditional photography was, and has always been. Chemicals, papers, inks, and copious amounts of water usage. I shudder now to think of just how consumptive my photography used to be.
I also began to question its efficacy, at least in relation to my creative objectives, which were to make photography a lifelong endeavor. To make images that had personal and hopefully universal relevance, to share them with as many people as possible, and somehow not to wreak havoc on the environment, or go broke in the process, these were my objectives.
Additionally, other things I've always wanted to let go of, but could not find an acceptable way. Framing, mattes, and glass always troubled me aesthetically and impoverished me financially. These had to go too. Fortunately social media was there to provide the venue for my pixels. And what a great venue. I run the gallery, and determine all the rules of engagement with my audience. How many artists enjoy that privilege?
  • Take Up Space
    Take Up Space
  • Epilogue
    Epilogue
  • TransTree
    TransTree
    TransTree
  • Inequality
    Inequality
    Inequality
  • Emerge
    Emerge
    Emerge
  • Our days are a kaleidoscope
    Our days are a kaleidoscope
    Our days are a kaleidoscope
  • vertical leap
    vertical leap
  • Torture
    Torture
  • Corporate Hacker
    Corporate Hacker
    Corporate Hacker
  • Wet Dream
    Wet Dream

2018

  • celebrate your differentness
    celebrate your differentness
    celebrate your differentness
  • a good love
    a good love
    I say a good love is one that casts you into the wind, sets you ablaze, makes you burn through the skies and ignite the night like a phoenix; the kind that cuts you loose like a wildfire and you can't stop running simply because you keep on burning everything that you touch! I say that's a good love; one that burns and flies, and you run with it! C. JoyBell C.
  • a few secrets you're too terrified to tell
    a few secrets you're too terrified to tell
    Have you got a few secrets you're too terrified to tell? Lovely, lay them on me, cause I've got a few of my own, as well....
  • Sycamore
    Sycamore
  • Night Vision
    Night Vision
  • Lingering Hope
    Lingering Hope
  • Blue Ghost
    Blue Ghost
  • resurrection
    resurrection
  • White Night
    White Night

2017

  • Crippled Inside
    Crippled Inside
  • Tombstone Tree
    Tombstone Tree
  • BackDraft
    BackDraft
  • a singular love that roots his heart makes him invincible
    a singular love that roots his heart makes him invincible
    The forces of desire that sway man's mind are the forces that will eventually destroy him, while a singular love that roots his heart makes him invincible. Prabhukrishna M
  • Fanfare
    Fanfare
    Fanfare
  • the clatter and clinks of fame
    the clatter and clinks of fame
    “If you desire the path of sincerity, develop a love for obscurity. Flee from the clatter and clinks of fame. Be like the roots of a tree; it keeps the tree upright and gives it life, but it itself is hidden underneath the earth and eyes cannot see it.” ― Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak
  • the best of you remains lovely to me
    the best of you remains lovely to me
    the best of you remains lovely to me
  • experts at letting things go
    experts at letting things go
    I realise there's something incredibly honest about trees in winter, how they're experts at letting things go. Jeffrey McDaniel
  • My thoughts all seem to stray to places far away
    My thoughts all seem to stray to places far away
    Creature comfort goals, they only numb my soul
 and make it hard for me to see.
 My thoughts all seem to stray to places far away
 I need a change of scenery. Carole King & Gerry Goffin Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
  • the fragrance of your disappearance
    the fragrance of your disappearance
    the fragrance of your disappearance

2017

  • Tentacles of Desire
    Tentacles of Desire
  • Falling Friend
    Falling Friend
    Falling Friend
  • my eyes mint gold
    my eyes mint gold
    my eyes mint gold
  • Entanglements
    Entanglements
    Entanglements
  • heart
    heart
    heart
  • Last Dance
    Last Dance
    Last Dance
  • Road Kill
    Road Kill
    Road Kill
  • The Grasp
    The Grasp
    The Grasp
  • Oh, HaveYa Seen, Jack-In-The-Green
    Oh, HaveYa Seen, Jack-In-The-Green
    Oh, HaveYa Seen, Jack-In-The-Green
  • InBetween Tree
    InBetween Tree
    InBetween Tree

2016

  • Fatigue
    Fatigue
    Fatigue
  • Start All Over
    Start All Over
    Start All Over
  • it's the darkness in between that fixes me in this place
    it's the darkness in between that fixes me in this place
    While I know there is light at the end of this road, it's the darkness in between that fixes me in this place.
  • Shade From Blues
    Shade From Blues
    Shade From Blues
  • I keep my light close against my skin
    I keep my light close against my skin
    when the nights get long
  • Bridalone
    Bridalone
    Bridalone
  • The Desires of Mary
    The Desires of Mary
  • Oak Mistral
    Oak Mistral
  • There is society, where none intrudes
    There is society, where none intrudes
    There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but Nature more George Gordon Byron
  • Electric Tree
    Electric Tree

2016

  • Domestic Argument
    Domestic Argument
    with child
  • Latent Memory
    Latent Memory
    of seasons past
  • Feeding Frenzy
    Feeding Frenzy
    Feeding Frenzy
  • Jaundice
    Jaundice
    Jaundice
  • Warm Place Within
    Warm Place Within
    Warm Place Within
  • Wounded Warrior
    Wounded Warrior
    Wounded Warrior
  • Grace
    Grace
    I think this tree had expectations of himself that exceeded his ability to realize. Had it not been for the power company, he might have risen to a stately height.
  • Calamity
    Calamity
    In middle school, I loved it when the teacher was out of the room and all order and decorum devolved into a raucous mayhem. At those times, I took great pleasure in my spectatordom, delighting in the craziness all around me, without having to risk the consequences of participation.
  • Silent Spring
    Silent Spring
    I found this dying tree on a road to Odessa, NY doing its level best to keep up appearances in its Spring attire and in good color. I'm sure this tree enjoyed a lot of beautiful Summers, but I do not expect to find this tree among the standing on my next journey to Ithaca.
  • So Close
    So Close
    At the base of Mammoth mountain, on the north shore of Horseshoe Lake, this tree was one of thousands who fell from carbon dioxide poisoning from nearby volcanic activity. One of those times Nature eats its own.

2015

  • Sheltered Existence
    Sheltered Existence
    Sheltered Existence
  • Loss of Significance
    Loss of Significance
    Loss of Significance
  • Grown Apart
    Grown Apart
    Couples are something that I'm forever on the lookout for. For these two, there is little left to share, and yet they remain together.
  • Three Sun Tree
    Three Sun Tree
  • Unsolicited Attention
    Unsolicited Attention
    Everybody has been there.
  • Corporate Assasin
    Corporate Assasin
    I made this image above the Towson Commons on a foggy evening in January. It's perhaps the most successful of my nature vs. man images. I imagine this tree engaged in some subversive act against a culture of corporate domination.
  • Self-Absorption
    Self-Absorption
    In an all out attempt to merge fiction with fact, this one has fallen into the image of its own reflection.
  • Epiphany
    Epiphany
    Epiphany
  • Peace Pilgrimage
    Peace Pilgrimage
    I captured this fellow on my fifth try, in a very wet and rapidly lifting fog, and I'm glad I did. A week later it had found a lasting peace laying in pieces on the ground. For Mildred Norman Ryder
  • Another Giving Tree
    Another Giving Tree
    for Shel Silverstein.

2015

  • I have two minds within me
    I have two minds within me
    and the difficulty of merging them
  • Personal heartwood
    Personal heartwood
    is this notion that deep within me
  • I have this shape in mind
    I have this shape in mind
    that I've made into an aspiration
  • I had this big idea
    I had this big idea
    at least I tried to make it so
  • There are some days I want to linger
    There are some days I want to linger
    and play and play away
  • It's this feeling of Fleetingness
    It's this feeling of Fleetingness
    the ephemeral nature of life
  • I can tell by the pricking in my thumbs
    I can tell by the pricking in my thumbs
    that something wicked
  • I'm always breaking down
    I'm always breaking down
    and always in perfect weather
  • There should be strict limits
    There should be strict limits
    placed upon carried dissappointments
  • I have these dreams about flying
    I have these dreams about flying
    but I'm too heavy to stay aloft

2014

  • becoming-conscious
    becoming-conscious
    becoming-conscious
  • Moon Tree
    Moon Tree
    Moon Tree
  • To be a lantern in the darkness, or an umbrella in a stormy day
    To be a lantern in the darkness, or an umbrella in a stormy day
    To be a lantern in the darkness, or an umbrella in a stormy day
  • You've always been strange to me
    You've always been strange to me
    and I wonder what goes on in your head
  • We had a good thing going
    We had a good thing going
    I took some hits along the way
  • You're constant attention
    You're constant attention
    is so suffocating to me
  • I live in this valley of shadows
    I live in this valley of shadows
    It's all that I ever known
  • I'm looking for some kind of elder
    I'm looking for some kind of elder
    someone who I trust can detect
  • I'm struck that so many that are waiting
    I'm struck that so many that are waiting
    for someone to save them from strife
  • the faculty of wonder
    the faculty of wonder
    the faculty of wonder