I often find myself in the midst of a daydream…
HI, I'M JO!
Long before photography became my work, it was simply the way I moved through the world. At eight years old, I spent the reception of my parents’ wedding with a disposable camera in my hands, determined to capture it from my perspective. At twelve, I was directing an overly serious Hollister-inspired beach photo shoot with several friends, chasing light and laughter like it was something you could actually hold onto. By eighteen, I was tucked into the corners of my cousin’s wedding morning, capturing the hair and makeup and final zip of the dress. This was all before smartphones, before documenting life was automatic. I always had a camera in my bag for every free-spirited night out on the town, making my friends model for me, or taking a macro photo of a raindrop resting on a flower.
I tripped and fell into this business, but I believe that’s because the cosmos aligned to bring me back to every prior version of myself, all of whom have built me into the photographer I am today. My hope is to give you an album of memories that survives decade after decade, bringing you right back to this day. If that’s how you want your life remembered, I’d be honored to help you preserve it.
Or I suppose it’s really more of a collection of MEMORIES
Let's make some magic
That’s still me, a certified yapper. I’ve always wanted to deeply know people - not just the surface stuff, but what makes them light up, what they love, what they’re working through. Being a chatty kathy has kept me in conversation with remarkable people. Growing up, I was the social butterfly - the kid who could float between friend groups. I was constantly singing and acting and I loved the energy of it. I loved the hours spent learning a character inside and out and welcoming an audience into knowing them, too.
Along the way, a camera was always accompanying me. I carried it to late-night hangouts, backstage, and beach days, capturing the ordinary magic of being young and surrounded by people I adored. My grandma’s meticulous photos of her award-winning garden taught me that beauty deserves to be preserved and I still use the film camera she taught herself on all these years later. By high school, I was taking photography classes, editing the yearbook, and chasing the story in every frame.
But I didn’t think it could be my job. Photography felt like something you loved, not something you built a life around. I studied theater and psychology in college, still drawn to human stories, and started photographing friends seriously soon after. The thread was always the same: I wanted to know people and I wanted to help them feel known. In the midst of taking on the title of artist, I also became a wife and a mother to two incredible daughters. I won’t lie, time felt different. It was faster and slower at the same time, louder and quieter, unhinged and holy.
The days blur in a way no one fully prepares you for — the bedtime songs, the tiny hands wrapped around your finger, the way your partner looks at you across the kitchen like you’re both in on the same beautiful secret. It all moves. It all changes. It all grows.
Becoming a wife and mother cemented something deep in my bones: photography isn’t just creative expression for me. Photography is how I hold onto what matters. It’s how I push back against the blur. It’s how I say, this happened — this love, this season, this version of us. More than ever, I know that preserving partnership and parenthood isn’t just a tagline. It’s the work of my own life. And it’s an honor to help you memorialize yours.
“Joy” isn’t about forced smiles or pretending everything is perfect. It’s about living wide open and deciding that even in the mess, even in the middle, there is always something worth celebrating.
I’m living proof that life is filled with befores and afters - before death and grief and pain that reshapes you into the after. I’ve walked through seasons that split life into two parts and that’s exactly why joy matters to me; not as denial or naivety, but as defiance and intention. Joy as a way of saying that what is good and true and tender deserves our attention.
Joy is the choice we make to resist the temptation to become cynical and irreverent. Joy is to say, hand to heart, this matters. Photography is my way of capturing the real stuff so it doesn’t get swallowed whole while life happens around us.
CAPTURING THE REAL STUFF
WITH JOY
Save your date
I have all of my report cards from elementary school
And every single one says I talk … a lot.
Let's yap!
YOU COULD SAY THAT I'M A LITTLE BIT OF A SENTIMENTAL GAL...
Before photography became an integral part of my life on a consistent basis, there was my grandparents’ wedding album. In the 60s, a tornado tore through their home and carried that album several towns away. Somehow, impossibly, it was found intact. Even more impossibly, someone took the time to figure out who they were and return it to them. It sits in my grandma’s living room to this day, despite having lost their home two more tragic times. It’s worn, treasured, and proof that photographs can outlast chaos.
PRESERVING HEIRLOOMS GENERATIONALLY
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
- e.e cummings
My two favorite places to travel are the North Shore and NYC. They couldn’t be more different, but both fill up my cup to the tippy top.
I started growing cut flowers a few summers ago and now have expanding plans for the garden in our yard.
My favorite creative hobby is pottery! I have my own wheel at home and take weekly classes.
My wedding day fuel of choice is a crispy diet coke and a handful of cheez-its
My library card gets a lot of use - I try to read 50 books every year.
On a wedding free Saturday, you’ll find me perusing an estate sale.
TO KNOW
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i made you!
