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Jo Blanco
American Photographer

Jo was born January 28,1961 in New York City. His family later moved to Miami Beach, Florida where he now resides with this Akita "Bo". Creativity has always been a part of his life. His Dad Julio Sr. a builder, Late Mom Nadina a fine artist and brother Julio Jr. an advertising creative director.

Jo graduated in 1979 from Miami Senior High where he played football as a starting Quarterback. He had a promising career in professional sports and played for The University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. His career ended abruptly with an arm injury and after a painful recovery and a lot of soul searching he took to the camera and went on to follow in the family's creative footsteps.

He began his new career in photography working his way up as an apprentice, later as an assistant and then a custom printer for several well known advertising photographers with large multi-national clients. This afforded him the kind of experience on location and in the studio to sprout wings of his own and In 1985 became Jo Blanco Photographer. Jo moved back to New York City 1995 where his work caught the eye of top agency art directors. Soon thereafter he was producing campaigns and editorial spreads for clients such as The Coca-Cola Company, Motorola , Maybelline, AT&T, Verizon, Blockbuster, FPL and Sara-Lee to name a few. After a very successful run in advertising his passion for editorial photography called him to Europe. After his whirlwind tour and about a million miles of celluloid he came back home to be with his family eventually staying and taking up residence in Miami Beach. The couple of years that followed brought many changes to the industry. It was the dawn of the digital age, the end of celluloid. Jo adopted and embraced this new technology and applied it to his fine art photography. His candid and poignant images offer glimpses into his subjects lives, their cultures and physical environments. His work has been exhibited in Coral Gables and New York including a traveling exhibit , “ Here is New York “ images from 9-11. Jo is fascinated with people from all walks of life. He captures the essence of their lifestyle and their habitat. Jo lists his personal work under Environmental Portraiture.

“My images are a testament to life that is constantly happening all around me. Photography at its very best is completely unpredictable, and will make you as honest as an athlete. I just make sure I am there to document the moment and preserve it for life and for others to learn from and live vicariously”.
- Jo Blanco Photographer