PRC Speaker Series with Michael Joseph
A hybrid presentation:
September 21, 2022
6:30 – 8:30 pm Online via Zoom and In-Person at the
Coolidge Corner Theater, Brookline, MA
Attend IN PERSON at the Coolidge Corner Theater: click HERE
Attend ONLINE via Zoom: click HERE
From the series, Lost and Found.
Michael Joseph is best known for his 10-year project, Lost and Found, a series of street portraits of that examines the individual souls of lost youth who abandon home to travel around the country by hitchhiking and freight train hopping. Within their personal journey driven by wanderlust, escapism or a search for transient jobs, they find a new family in their traveling friends.
Joseph’s more recent ongoing project, Wild West of the East, is a series of polaroid portraits aiming to describe the energy and culture of a place (Provincetown, MA) through the people found within it. Provincetown claims a sense of freedom that is palpable. It is creative, sexual and exploratory. As one subject said, “I’ve painted my face 100 different ways walking into town and I’ve finally found a place where freaks like me are supposed to be.”
Joseph’s inspirations are drawn from interactions with strangers on city streets and public spaces. His work allows the viewer to explore the immediate and unseen and examines themes of American subculture, found family and personal authenticity.
Michael Joseph’s work has been featured on CNN.com, Vice.com, AnotherMan.com, PaperMag.com and published in magazines internationally including Elle, Inked, 1814 and SHOTS. He has been exhibited nationally, with solo shows at Daniel Cooney Fine Art (New York, NY) and the Soho Photo Gallery (New York, NY). Group exhibitions include the notable Aperture Gallery (New York, NY), the Getty Images Gallery (London, UK) and the Griffin Museum of Photography (Massachusetts). He has lectured at the International Center of Photography (New York, NY), the Savannah College of Art and Design (Savannah, GA), in portraiture classes at the New England School of Photography (Boston, MA) and taught at the Light Factory (Charlotte, NC).
Joseph’s photographs are held in the permanent collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Fort Wayne Museum of Art in Indiana, the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts, and private collections. He is a 2016 Photolucida Top 50 winner, 2020 Photolucida Finalist, and LensCulture Portrait Award Finalist. He is a recipient of the fellowship in photography from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and a grant from the Peter S. Reed Foundation.