ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Joseph A. Rosen's career as a freelance editorial and corporate photographer has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Newsweek, and many others of note. Coupled with his passion for the stories one can tell through a lens is his love of music, especially the Blues.
Joe was already landing work while still doing his degree (with photography as his focus) at Carnegie Mellon University. A trip to Washington, DC, in 1976 to see Muddy Waters led Rosen to become a fixture at clubs, concerts, festivals, and cruises over the ensuing decades.
Blues Hands, released by Schiffer Publishing in 2015, showcased Joe's professional talents, with an emphasis on the hands of the people who played the music. Now, a more expansive work has been released: Inside the Moment: Iconic Blues, Soul, Jazz, Rock and R&B Images and History, which contains over 150 black and white images of some of Joe's finest work. Each chapter covers a genre of music and includes forewords by Scott Barretta, Steve Berkowitz, and Dick Shurman. The reader will see intimate, emotional, and powerful shots of music luminaries they will know, and many more they should.
A native of Yonkers, New York, Joe Rosen won The Blues Foundation's Keeping the Blues Alive in Photography and Art Award in 2002. He still lives in New York; you can find out more about Joe at his website.
UPDATE: after this podcast was recorded, we learned that Inside the Moment won the Living Blues Magazine Reader's Poll as the Best Blues Book of 2025. Congratulations, Joe!
