SFSAC ARTIST WEEKLY SPOTLIGHT

Author - Searching for My Lost Tribe   +    International Street Photographer

Over the years, Joseph Cosby has been featured in solo shows, galleries, and museums in Washington, DC; Bellingham. Washington; Dallas, Texas; Steamboat Springs, Colorado; Antigua, Guatemala; and Santa Fe, New Mexico. His works are found in collections in the US as well as overseas.  

Joseph started his works a photographer in the late 60’s for an arts magazine in Princeton New Jersey.. He sold his first work in 1969. In the early 70’s he switched from B&W to color and then in 2017 came back “home” to black and white on canvas. 

With the loss of sight in his right eye 2007 it appeared that Joseph’s career in photography was coming to an end. Instead, he found that it had only just begun as he adopted a completely new focus and vision. Twelve years later this culminated in the work — “Searching for My Lost Tribe: A Roll of the Dice, A Flip of the Coin”, a project spanning five continents and 50 years of searching, listening and capturing the stories of lives so different from his own. 

HIs formal training in the arts and photography is a short journey. Joseph was never to take an art course beyond the sixth grade, has never taken a course in photography, was never the apprentice of another artist, had no mentors, and claims he is “too old and not smart enough to use Photoshop or it's derivatives.” Rather, he continues to rely on those techniques of an earlier era, employed in the dark room.

Joseph’s real studies resulted in a MA from Columbia University in New York and advanced studies at the Instituts d'Études Politiques in Paris. In a past life, he enjoyed a career as a consultant for state and federal governments with clients ranging fromThe  New York City Police Department, the City of Washington DC, Virginia Department of Corrections, and The Department of Defense. As an undergraduate, he received a music scholarship fort voice to pursue a career in opera. That never happened.

He is a member of the International Press Corps. When not traveling off the beaten path with his wife, Sheilahis home is Santa Fe, New Mexico with their dog, Mondo.

LEARN MORE HERE AND CONNECT TO JOSEPH'S WEBSITE