Capturing Beauty

The Beauty of Photography
By Lauren Lasley
This interview was published in the October, 2005 edition of The Chronicle.

In October of last year, Joe Barr displayed many of his photographs at the Disability Awareness Month Event held at the Public Museum. The event focused on the artistic talents of persons with disabilities and Joe was one of 10 that shared his works with the community.

Joe, now 63, became interested in photography more than 50 years ago. When he was 12, his family moved into a house that had a small darkroom in the basement. “I discovered a world of wonder”, said Joe regarding his first steps into photography.

Joe graduated from Purdue University with a degree in aeronautical engineering. Right out of college Joe began working utilizing his degree. After some time, Joe became bored with the job. “They paid me very generous sums of money to sit and think 8 to 10 hours a day.” But Joe wanted more of a challenge. He headed for the direction of sales and marketing, finding new challenges in this field.

While still working, Joe began noticing that he was walking funny but wrote this off to the bad knees he had from childhood. He also began to notice that his speech was becoming thicker, but thought this was due to dental work he was having done at the time. 10 years went by with these symptoms increasing in his everyday life. Finally, Joe was diagnosed with a general neuromuscular disability. Typically this type of disability is degenerative, but Joe shows no signs of this. “The effects of my disability are most noticeable in my walk and my speech. As long as I concentrate and keep my energy up, I can control it” said Joe. “Some people can’t walk and chew gum, I can’t walk and talk”, laughed Joe.

Although this disability forced Joe into early retirement, he didn’t let that keep him down. He took this opportunity to get back into exploring his love of photography. Joe just finished up a 3 month showing at the Pollard Gallery, 514 56th Street. He is currently showing his work at Uniquely Northern in Racine. “Uniquely Northern is a classy, elegant place for artists to display their works”, said Joe about his next venture. When Joe is preparing for a showing he works every day of the week on printing, mounting, and framing his works. When not in preparation mode, Joe estimates that he spends at least a few days a week on his craft. Last year, after the Disability Awareness Month Event, Joe purchased a digital camera and is now learning the art from a different perspective. “You learn the camera by using it. I try to work with my camera as often as possible to improve my work. I take hundreds of pictures just to learn from.”

Joe has also recently started working with Lakeside Players, Kenosha’s community theater group, taking head shots of the actors to display in the lobby. He also takes candid shots of the rehearsals that are sometimes used to promote the plays in newsletters.

But mainly Joe works with flowers. “For some reason I picked flowers as my main subject. They don’t whine and are always cooperative” laughed Joe. “I can’t paint, I can’t sculpt. I sure can’t sing and I am retired from dancing. I am unable to create beauty, but from time to time I am able to capture some of the beauty around us.”

Joe will also have a piece showing in the Spotlight Gallery at the Rhode Opera House and the 2nd floor of the Public Museum, both with the Kenosha Art Association’s displays. You can check out Joe’s work at www. kenoshaartassoc.org.

So what’s the next adventure for Joe? Well, he is currently trying his hand at writing short stories. “I haven’t done any writing since high school and I am always up for a new adventure.”