About Joe Shymanski

There is too much to tell in a short paragraph, but the simple thing to say is that Joe was everyone’s best friend. He was a beloved local photographer in Washington, DC, with his photos that he sold from Eastern Market and other locations making their way onto the walls of many homes in DC and beyond. He described his job as the best in the world, because he got to make people smile. To know Joe was to love Joe. And if you didn’t know him, it is just more to this tragedy, because you would have been his next best friend.

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Joe -- Joseph Anthony Shymanski -- was born on November 11, 1971 in Detroit, Michigan and grew up in Livonia, Michigan. Joe was known for his infectious optimism, boundless curiosity, and unwavering kindness. 

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Based in Washington DC, Joe was a beloved fine art, portrait and event photographer. He was an alumni of the University Of Michigan, where he earned a degree in History and Psychology and a certification to teach in the public schools. Joe worked as a secondary school social studies teacher in Detroit, Korea, Honduras, the District of Columbia and Virginia before opening a small photography studio on Capitol Hill in 2000.

Joe excelled in photography in high school which led him to his first job as a portrait and event photographer at Focal Point Studio in Farmington, Michigan. Focal Point is one of Michigan's finest photography studios and was an incubator for Joe's growing artistic studies in lighting, composition and human expression. His work in the studio led him to see the natural world as a larger studio set. Combining an understanding of available lighting with reflected and flash lighting, Joe created simple and elegant images that detail the beauty of lighting, composition, and human pose.

Joe sold his fine art photography year round, outdoor at Capitol Hill's weekend Eastern Market. He was also a commercial fine art photographer for many of the leading marketing advertising agencies in the greater Washington DC area. 

 

To view the work of Joe Shymanski & Alton McDougle, please visit www.freehugsdc.com.