Joson Nl

“In my photographs, I see myself as having two obligations: One to myself and my audience - to share with people the moments that I experience in nature that are breathtaking and often challenging to see, hoping to inspire them to go out and experience nature for themselves. And second to Nature herself: to motivate people to want to protect the land and creatures that share our planet.”

--joSon

Award-winning photographer joSon was born in the Philippines to a Filipino mother and an African-American father. Sent to live with his mother’s family in Vietnam at age ten, he was educated in a Buddhist temple in preparation for becoming a monk. “I thought that was my calling long before I saw life through the viewfinder,” joSon recollects,“…but the truth is, I have never left the monk-hood, I just left the temple.”

Today joSon is a professional photographer based in San Francisco whose work is collected by an international list of clients. His work has appeared in magazines including Scientific American, Outside, Conde Nast Traveler, and Vogue — and won awards from PDN, Communication Arts, and American Photography. As Sunset magazine described joSon’s first monograph, joSon: Intimate Portraits of Nature, Graphis Press, 2013: "Had Richard Avedon taken up gardening, he might have ended up with photos like this.”

joSon got his M.F.A degree in photography at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco where he is currently resident.