Joel Simpson ’76 PhD writes: “Since graduating I have engaged in 10 years of college teaching, 22 years of professional jazz and cabaret piano performance in New Orleans (including the acquisition of a master’s of music degree at Loyola University), and 13 years as a wedding, event and portrait photographer. I have now devoted myself to fine art photography, especially of geologically oriented landscapes. I have written and published a book laying out an original approach to landscape photography, Faces in the Rocks: Beyond Landscape to Psycho-Geological Photography. In addition to its 212 images, this book presents an extended analysis of my approach in a thoroughly annotated text that invokes my predecessors (notably Aaron Siskind, whom I met at RISD). Realizing that I’m challenging the norms of a well-established photographic genre, I mustered my academic training in literary criticism from Brown to overcome objections that any innovator faces and to invite other photo-artists to expand their vision and practice by following my example. By doing so, they can create images that transcend the limits of their imagination.”
See more notes:
GS Class of 1976