Hi. I’m JJ.
I’m an artist, community organizer, and massage therapist.
I create projects that bring humans together.
When I look at people, I do my best to see them as their closest friends or family would: with love.
Whether it’s as participants in a public art project, as guests to my house concert series, or clients in my bodywork practice, I strive to welcome all equally.
In 2014 I spoke at a TEDx event exploring the importance of sharing this way of seeing each other.
I started off as a documentary/commercial photographer, and throughout that career I’ve made portraits of doctors, stagehands, lawyers, farmworkers, dancers, protesters & more.
In the course of over a million photographs, I’ve never met a person who isn’t photogenic.
This simple but powerful truth—that everyone is photogenic—guides all of the work that I do.
A few years back I published an online manifesto addressing our society’s misuse of the term ‘photogenic,’ and why it’s important to remember that we all are.
This isn’t just about how we look in photographs; proclaiming that everyone is photogenic is an invitation for us to see one another with new eyes and allow our lives to be illuminated by every single person whom we cross paths with.
You can check out the manifesto here →
In 2014 I spoke at a TEDx event on the importance of sharing this way of seeing each other.
All of my projects are based in this truth…
When we work on the assumption that everyone is photogenic, and create safe, inclusive, welcoming space, magic happens.
Whether it’s through How Philly Moves, whose 85,000 sq ft mural at PHL International Airport celebrates our city’s incredible diversity and shared humanity through love of dance, or Walk Around Philadelphia which celebrates the city’s edges through a walk around its perimeter and ensuing performance and stories, I’ve found beauty most everywhere that I’ve looked.
Beauty also comes to you when you invite it in: Faces of Migration brought diverse experiences of displacement from across our city together into my museum residency much like my house concert series brings together diverse neighbors in my own residence.
If this resonates with you, I’d love to share some of my favorite projects with you. To help create the next one, I’d welcome your participation as a backer, and if there’s an opportunity for us to work together, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
