About Joseph Crachiola

My life in photography has been the result of a series of accidents. As a high school student in the late sixties, I got an after-school job working at a weekly newspaper in the Michigan town where I grew up. After sweeping floors and working in the mailroom for a few months, I was offered a job as a part-time copyboy. I had no idea what that was, but I figured it was worth a try.

While working in the newsroom, I used to watch the photos come across the AP wire machine and read the stories as they arrived on the teletype. I was fascinated by what I read and saw, and I often imagined myself in those faraway places. At the same time, I was intrigued as the reporters and photographers went about their business of news gathering. In particular, the photographers fascinated me as they disappeared into the darkroom and emerged with a handful of photographs. It didn’t take long for me to decide that was what I wanted to do with my life.

I have been involved in photography for nearly sixty years.

I am a native of Detroit, Michigan, where I had a career in photography that spanned over forty years, having worked as a news photographer, a corporate/industrial photographer, and an adjunct photography instructor at a community college. For several years, I also maintained a studio in Detroit. In 2009, I relocated to New Orleans.

My work is held in several private collections and is also part of the permanent collections of the Detroit Institute of Arts, the University of Michigan, and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, France. I am also a saxophonist and guitarist, performing regularly in New Orleans.