If you’re not familiar with the commercial and documentary portraits of the globetrotting Joey L, check out his website for a wild ride. His stylized, edgy and intimate work is sure to leave an impression.
Joey L (a.k.a. Joey Lawrence) is a Canadian fine artist whose clients include Warner Brothers Records, NBC, United Way and the Salvation Army. His deep interest in other people comes across in his images. His subjects appear riveted, often staring deeply into the lens.
Completely self-taught, Joey L images have a distinctly contemporary look. He uses Photoshop manipulation as is a crucial creative tool but explains that lighting and exposure are his most important ingredients.
It was hard to get through those first three paragraphs about Joey L without mentioning that he is only 18 years old. It’s a heck of a striking fact given Joey L’s impressive body of work, his professional success, his travel experiences and his insightful perspectives. Knowing how old he is, it’s hard not to be even more impressed by his work.
I held off mentioning his age because there’s no doubt that Joey L is good enough to be judged—for better or worse—by the merits of his work alone. A photographer of any age with such mastery of technique, such a strong vision and such a powerful, curious, honest voice would be of interest. That Joey L is only 18 seems hard to believe—and yet, in some ways, maybe not?
For a few years now I have been mentioning to other photographers that I am curious to see what kind of work the next generation of photographers will produce. These photographers will have no strong sense of film photography, will have used computers all their lives, and will have never known a world without complete Internet connectivity.
Joey L has the personality, the natural talent and the drive that would seem to have guaranteed him a to find a way to express his vision were he born twenty or fifty years earlier. But I don’t think it would have been guaranteed. And it’s a fact that such a level of accomplishment would have been impossible at for a man so young twenty years ago—even for the likes of the talented Mr. Picasso.
Joey L’s early-aged achievements were only possible because he was able to use relatively inexpensive, accessible technology to create his art and, much more critical, to share it with a worldwide audience—gaining international recognition by 17.
That’s when I first encountered Joey L. A year ago, photographer and writer Susi Lawson reported on Joey L in an article she wrote for the June/July 2007 AfterCapture. At that time Joey L was on his first trip to India. And while his work was more than promising, a year later Joey L has proved that he was only getting started.
Not only has Joey L expanded his portfolio with images from that first and many subsequent trips, but he has also taken on clients, secured two agents and begun making cutting-edge music videos. He’s even created a two-hour digital editing instruction video: “Joey L’s Behind the Scenes: The Complete Tutorial.”
What I find most notable about Joey L’s aesthetic is the degree to which he digitally stylizes all of his images, but yet keeps them feeling “straight”—whether or not they are. Without their captions, it is hard to know which are his un-staged documentary images and which images come from commercial assignments.
I wonder if what I perceive as the crossover between the real and the fictional in Joey L’s work is because he has spent his whole life in a digital world in which the two have been intermixed. Then I wonder if I am only wondering this because Joey L is only 18. Then I figure it probably doesn’t matter. Joey L’s work is good. Period.
Once you’ve checked out Joey L’s work, let us know what you think about it—regardless of what age you happen to be.