Opening Reception for “Window Dressings” from Joe Baraban

Opening Reception for “Window Dressings” from Joe Baraban will be Saturday, June 3 from 4-7pm. Photographer, Joe Baraban, will be in attendance during the reception. The exhibit, which includes three images in the permanent photography collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, will remain available for viewing in person and online through September 30.

“Joe Baraban is a legend in advertising photography,” said gallery owner Nicole Longnecker. “However, few are aware of his artistic body of work concentrating on windows in structures off the beaten path. Fifteenth century Italian architect Leon Alberti remarked that windows are like small paintings. Later, artists Matisse and Vermeer used windows to illuminate their subjects. American painter Edward Hopper used the architecture of windows in well-known paintings ‘Nighthawks’ and ‘Morning Sun.’ Baraban’s images exhibit these same qualities.”

JOE BARABAN Upon receiving his BA in Journalism, Joe Baraban worked for UPI, AP, and was a Black-Star photographer. After that, he ventured out into the freelance world and never looked back. For the past fifty years, Joe has shot for clients from Coca Cola to Hennessy, Cessna to IBM. His resume includes most of the Fortune 500 companies. He has photographed the full line car brochures for Acura, Saturn, and Range Rover, not to mention campaigns for Jaguar, Ford, and Toyota. The tourism departments for Alberta Canada, Pennsylvania, Alabama, and Texas have contacted Joe for their state campaigns. Editorial clients such as National Geographic, Life, Texas Monthly, Time, Geo, and the New York Times magazine have used Joe for several assignments.

Joe has traveled around the country documenting old windows; a definite departure from the world of graphic design and advertising. Three windows in his series are now in the permanent collection of photography at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas.

Teaching people how to develop their eye has always been one of Joe’s passions, and he has conducted one-week workshops at the Maine Media Workshop (thirty-six years), twice at the Julia Dean Workshop, the Texas Photo Workshop, The Pacific Northwest School of Art on Whidbey Island, and the South Florida Workshop. The Santa Fe Workshops have not only brought him there for workshops but has sent him to Cuba five times with a group of photographers on a one-to-one cultural exchange to photograph the light, color, and people of this beautiful country. Joe has also conducted continuing education classes at Rice University in Houston and has taught his workshop at the Houston Center for Photography.

His honors include two gold medals in the New York Art director’s show. Gold medals in the national Addy’s, Photo Design, Studio Magazine’s premier award, the Houston, and Dallas Art Director’s shows, and the Don Belding award in Los Angeles. He is in Texas Monthly’s 100 best photographs and has been on Adweek’s Southwestern All-star Team. Joe has had feature articles written about him in Communication Arts Magazine (plus the cover), Photo Design (plus the cover), Design, Japan’s premier magazine (plus the cover) and Studio Magazine. Joe’s work has appeared in Communication Arts, Graphis, and The Mead Annual Report show. He was also invited to judge the prestigious Communication Art’s Photography Annual.

Joe is based in Houston, TX.