Joan Hill

Utata Member

Bio

Joan began her fascination with photography in high school when she was handed a twin lens reflex camera for use in an introductory darkroom class. While attending school in Boston, she worked as a manager in a camera store and in custom-quality color film labs. Discounts on hardware, film and processing at that time was a real boon, allowing her plenty of opportunities to experiment. It was also inspiring to be amongst other photographers and artists in the area at this early stage in her career.

An interest in biology eventually led her to a career in medical photography in Boston hospitals. While on the job, she was trained as a graphic designer, providing photos and visuals for medical research publications, using a wide variety of applications.

There was a break in the work-world for Joan when she began her family, but the photo albums were always filled with the stuff of life; home, hearth, and seasonal delights.

"Going digital" in 1999 brought new life and enthusiasm to photography for Joan, which led to a intensive self-education in the ways of the web and digital imaging. Passion turned to work when she began to shoot for local news outlets, community groups, and non-profit organizations. She is currently enrolled in the Graphic and Interactive Design program at the Boston Univeristy Center for Digital Imaging.

She enjoys living in New England with her husband and teenage daughter, and also loves to travel, especially to England, where she has special connections with the land and people. Her greatest passions right now involve her work for The Peace Abbey in Sherborn Massachusetts, exploring and photographing natural art and art in nature, and recording her journeys, far and near...as well as metaphorical.

Testimonial

Joan is a world traveller. She's also the girl next door, your best friend, and a sympathetic stranger. There is an endless variety of images and moods in her work, which is by turns thoughtful, playful, stark, and unnerving.

In her world, statues morph into kaleidoscopes, calm beaches become apocalyptic visions, family gatherings are meditations on detail and perspective. She shows us love and laughter, pain and mystery. The familiar becomes new and fresh.

If life is a journey, Joan shows that it is made up of glimpses and impressions - images that can bend and change - inducing laughter and wonder, recognition and amazement.

Testimonial written by Alan Thibeault