Art photographer Joe Tantillo brings together many worlds in his work. The world of the artist and the digital wizard. The world of lost icons of past centuries, both in the rural U.S. and Ireland seen with a 21 st century eye. The mysterious worlds that are often hidden in plain sight. He has shown at New York City's Nexus Gallery, and shows in the Hudson Valley, in Connecticut and at the VAULT in Springfield, VT.
A Fine Art graduate at Syracuse University, Joe Tantillo began his art career in the 1970's as a painter,
winning commissions and awards for his passionate works of abstract expressionism. "It was nice work, but didn't pay the rent," recalls Tantillo. So he began a fascinating journey leading him through years as a successful Graphic Designer both in New Haven, CT and in LaGrange, NY winning 35 international, national and regional awards for his work.
Tantillo explored the world of book design and illustration, and in 1983 sold his first illustrated book for children to Pantheon Press. In 1986, he moved to La Grange, and was a founding member of the Hudson Valley Marketing Association. In 1994, Joe Tantillo with his wife Maura Shaw founded Shawangunk Press, a regional publisher specializing in New York State history and art. Their delightful book Owl's Journey, written by Shaw and illustrated by Joe Tantillo, covers 400 years of Dutchess County, NY history seen through the eyes of the young people who lived there.
In the ear1y 1990's, Tantillo converted to digital art, an event which changed all aspects of his artwork forever.
Today he is a Webmaster and Graphic User Interface designer for a cutting-edge software company. At the same time the exhilarating spirit of his young fine-art days has returned to him. Tantillo sees the beauty of the world in his digital photography, and transforms that world into a unique image through a digital enhancement technique which he says "literally reinvents the entire color palette of the photograph to produce a new and different graphic vocabulary. The image continues to evolve until an entirely new work emerges."
"In the end, it is all about the journey," says Tantillo, "my personal journey and the journey where my eyes take me. I allow myself to take the time to see what's in front of me every day and have a knack for capturing it in a way that makes art."
Joe recently won Honorable Mention for his photo "56 Eldorado" in Photographer's Forum magazine's 22nd Annual Spring Photography Contest, a contest which received over 21,300 entries worldwide.
Joe has again placed as a finalist in the 23rd Annual Spring Photography Contest.
