Joe Blevins

My first serious interest in photography began in 1970 while I was stationed on the Azores Islands during my years in the Air Force. There wasn’t much to do there during off duty hours so I decided to buy a “real” camera. It was a 35mm Pentax range finder.  Being away from the real world black and white was the easiest way to go…which I instantly loved and it still has a place in my heart when it’s done right. The little Pentax and B&W film were good learning tools because I had to get it right straight out of the camera…there wasn’t any post processing available. Whatever came back from the developer was what I had.

Anyway, I figured out right away I was not a portrait or nature photographer.  I like to shoot people candidly, old buildings and vehicles, things abandoned, anything different and unique and it’s always been for my own pleasure.  My taste is definitely eclectic.

In the early eighties I studied for a year under Ashley Fetner.  A friend and I built a darkroom (black and white).  I was continually experimenting with manipulating my images. We did some juried showings and had a lot of fun with that.  Life got in the way for a while and all my old film equipment collected dust.

But then along came digital…just my thing! The flame had been rekindled, shoot as much as I wanted and delete what wasn’t savable…or make something totally different from the image with heavy post processing. I love to bend or break the “rules” occasionally. It keeps things alive for me…again, doing it for my own pleasure but I hope you enjoy my work too.