Joseph Umbro

111In the winter of 2002 upon hiatus from the California Institute of Technology, Joseph embarked on a solo photography expedition in Egypt to capture the mystery of the ancient culture. The photos of “Aegyptus” highlight his expedition from Giza in Lower Egypt, to Aswan in Upper Egypt . A photographer in the classic sense, Joseph processed, printed, matted and framed all of his work himself, completely by hand upon his return. This process took more than a year.
111After spending a time at Art Center College of Design in the 90s and being employed by Caltech, Joseph set out to build a body of work by photographing a wide range of subjects from Fashion Celebrity editorial work, to Architecture, to major sporting events, to touring with stadium music festivals. Joseph has been featured in such publications as People Magazine, Volleyball Magazine, OYE Magazine and the Los Angeles Times. Egypt was the most elaborate project to date in his thirteen years residing at Caltech. While at the institute, Joseph photographed the likes of former presidents, Nobel Prize winning professors and a number of Celebrities who visited the university.
111 Joseph's intentions in Egypt were to represent the ancient culture photographically, capturing all the mystique in a timeless fashion. Almost as if the photographs were taken a century ago. To acquire the look he envisioned, Joseph elected to shoot black and white film exclusively on this trip. This film, combined with special printing techniques, gave the desired effect of the original vision he conceived. The journey began with a taxi ride from Cairo International Airport directly to the Giza Plateau; a taxi ride that changed his life. Over the course of the next sixteen days, the journey took him from the pyramid sites at Saqqara, Dashur, Abusir and Meidum, to the middle kingdom capitol of Thebes and the mortuary temples of the west bank. His journey would draw close to an end near the southern boundary city of Aswan and the Nile temples. Then, returning days later to the modern capitol of Cairo and Heliopolis . This journey was not only physically demanding, but mentally challenging as well. The range of emotions experienced while being alone on this journey ran the entire gamut, and was the most challenging aspect of the expedition. In all, Joseph photographed 18 Pyramids, 15 temples, 4 Obelisk's, an unknown number of Sphinx's, in 11 cities, all on 123 rolls of film. “Aegyptus” is a culmination of all Joseph's experience, talents and emotions while in Egypt.
111 Future aspirations for Joseph consist of publishing a book of images from Egypt . Also, three more expeditions are in the works, one to the Nubian pyramid fields of “ Meroe ” in the Sudan , another to the temple complex at “Angkor Watt” in Cambodia , and finally a wildlife journey to “ Namibia ”.