Biography

Joe Decker is a nature photographer, author and educator living in Northern California. His work has been exhibited across the country from the Smithsonian to LACDA in Los Angeles, and he has been awarded artist residencies in Petrified Forest National Park, Iceland, Svalbard, Antarctica and Greenland.  He is the author of The Tuesday Composition, published by Flatbooks Publishing.

Joe's nature photography is a descendent of the West Coast school of landscape photography, showing influences by such artists as Galen Rowell and Frans Lanting. Color, often intensely (but still accurately) saturated, is often a forward element of his work, while composition is often used to signify deeper, more personal levels of the captured experience.

Self-taught early in his photographic career, Joe began studying with other masters of nature photography in the late 1990s, including Galen Rowell, Richard Knepp, and Bill Atkinson.

In 1999, Joe published his award-winning body of work October, entirely taken from images created during a particular month in the Eastern Sierra.

In 2003, one of Joe's landscape photographs, Granite and Snow, Little Lakes Valley was "highly honored" by the Nature's Best Foundation at the National Museum of National History, part of the Smithsonian.

In 2005, his image Frightened Tree and Pogonip was awarded first prize in the show Monochrome by Mark Citret, photographer and former assistant to Ansel Adams. In 2006, his image Aphid and Desert Sunflower was awarded first prize in the show Flower Power at the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto, California.

In 2008, the National Park Service named him an artist-in-residence at Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.

In 2010, Hurtigrunten awarded him an artist residency in the Disko Bay area of West Greenland, and in 2011, followed up with an additional residency in Svalbard.

In 2012, Flatbooks acquired the rights to publish Joe's book The Tuesday Composition.

In 2013, Hurtigruten awarded him an artist residency which brought him to Antarctica.

In 2014, Gullkistan awarded Joe a 1-month residency in Laugarvatn, Iceland.

Press

Wallace, Rebecca. (28 Apr. 2008). "Hidden in plain sight". Palo Alto Weekly

Williams, Scott (28 Jul. 2008). "Artist in Residence Lecture, August 5". National Park Service

Seyfert, Tim (9 Sept. 2009). "Shades of life". Palo Alto Weekly

Siber, Kate (12 Nov. 2009). "Gear Test: Camera Bags". The New York Times

Wallace, Rebecca (5 Nov. 2010). "Hunting the elusive image". Palo Alto Weekly