Joe – Vice-President and General Manager
Describing himself as a “bean counter,” Joe has been the GM at CameraCanada since 1995, having worked his way up from lab tech when he started in 1988. That was the same year he graduated from Fanshawe College’s photography program. (He and Tracey [office admin] met when they were both in school and have been together since.) Owner Antony Chodas describes him as “a machine with numbers and forecasting, and a genius at networking and dealing with suppliers and customers.”
Besides running marathons (including the Boston Marathon, twice), Joe’s main outside-of-work fixation is travel photography. He balances the creative and business sides of his job with excellent people management skills. “Everyone here is great at what they do, so we empower them to do their jobs. They make my job so much easier” he says.
After finding out he could get out of some of his onerous high school classes by taking photography courses, Joe stumbled into it and “fell in love,” a feeling that has lasted. “I love helping people to create memories and freeze moments in time that have resonance for years.”
Joe’s favourite place to photograph is India, because “it’s such a colourful environment, with diversity and history. It’s a land of golden light and a rainbow of saris; there’s great colour and contrast.”
See Joe’s work on Instagram