JOE’S JOURNEY
written
by Wendy Newcomer
For 12 years Joe Hardwick has
been an established commercial photographer (www.joehardwick.com). His
subjects range from celebrities and models to artists and tourists, all
passing through Music City and on to their dreams and
destinations. But
one day Joe bought a van, paid his bills for the next two months, and
decided to set out on his own path.
“I think traveling is in my
blood,” says this son of a military man and the great-great-grandson of
a Hungarian gypsy queen. “This trip has been in the back of my head for
a long time. I can trace the roots of it back to when I was in the
sixth grade. My dad had retired from the Air Force and we were living
in Idaho. We lived in an RV for the summer, just traveling from Idaho
up the west coast and up into Canada. That’s the time in life just
before you start growing up and becoming an adult. So I think part of
this trip is me trying to get back to that feeling.”
Joe’s itinerary includes
heading out from Nashville up to Michigan, taking a four-hour ferry
ride across the Great Lakes, cruising through Milwaukee, up to the
Dells, then to Winnepeg, Toronto and back down the east coast. He’s
taking this journey in a 1993 Volkswagon Euro van. “It’s a
unique vehicle,” says Joe with a smile. “I wanted it to be kind of a
conversation piece. People who know what it is will be inclined to ask
about it, so I wanted it to be approachable.”
In this van will be the three
cameras he’ll use to photograph everything from pop culture
architecture to classic architecture, to landscapes and people. “I have
a Canon Digital 10 D, an Olympus E-10, and an Sony 8mm video camera,”
says Joe. “I like to photograph quirky, funny
things. With commercial photography, I’m somewhat of a “hired gun.” On
this trip I’ll be able to photograph what I’d like to see and then be
able to translate that visually – maybe give a unique perspective on
America, from my eyes.”
Check Joe’s website –
www.jogofoto.com often to see what he’s finding on his journey.