ARTIST PROFILE

Joseph O'Neill

  • United States (b. 1965 in Brooklyn)
  • Currently in New York City, United States.

REPRESENTATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

Alfred Eisenstaedt proclaimed: "The important thing is not the camera, but the eye." Reflecting this bold credo, my innovative "Third Eye" photography skillfully illuminates sites and scenes that the normal vision easily overlooks. Across a monochrome arcade of life, my masterful black and white urban photography encapsulates the aesthetics of a modern romantic and mirrors the irrepressible energy of the world as I celebrates the possibility of the unexpected in urban life. Urban and industrial in tone, I begin with a nocturnal photograph of an ordinary building or street scene or beach scene and offers a close- range, almost intimate view of scenes of the environment. Rather than offering a wider view of an entire edifice, my sharp lens synthesizes every detail and is unerring – the work constantly demands that the viewer go outside and see their “ordinary” surroundings with better eyes

A master at manipulating the lens, my intuitive vision shines the spotlight on often overlooked

urban beauties such as alleyways or tops of buildings, and showcases details of these edifices where there are often no people or even animals, only the living, breathing city. With a sense of drama, my photography's powerful oeuvre offers the sites and scenes of the world, dramatically highlighting in sharp black and white architectural forms with a clean and sharp visions. Employing dazzling dark and shimmering light contrasts, I brings dynamic movement and a sense of shifting light as I offers each locale a life of its own, offering a close, almost confrontational range. The sharpness of my nocturnal images best illustrates the skilled photographer’s finely developed sense of light and composition. With an intuitive vision, my oeuvre vividly envelopes the senses, inviting the viewer to re-think the images of the world as his film sees it, encouraging them to enter this environment and experience the view.

Regarded as a master of the black and white photography medium, my clear, elegantly composed black and white photography oeuvre

expresses both my experiences and personal vision. 


BIOGRAPHY

Joseph O’Neill

Artist Biography


My journey started with my Grandmother, also an artist, who constantly encouraged me to be creative and explore the artist within me.  I soon discovered the photographer Eugene Adget and his unique way of capturing the simplicities of everyday life.  Also, Manray for showing me that photography is art.

        Although I have no formal art education in the art world, I did attend the Johnson and Wales University for Culinary Arts, and suspect the care and attention I learned to pay to food helped shape my appreciation of the beauty of the ordinary, day-to-day life. Also, because I am self-taught as a photographer, I am never afraid to explore, question and educate myself, to become more nuanced in capturing what I would like to share to the world.

        I have had the great fortune to not only participate in numerous photo expositions, but to have placed in a handful of them.  The most recent result is that I have been invited to show my work in group shows at galleries throughout the New York Tri-borough Area.