Joseph R. Hearst

Joseph Hearst is retired from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where he worked as a physicist for 35 years. Towards the end of his career he worked mainly in geophysical well logging. He was a founder and past President of the Minerals and Geotechnical Logging Society. He is a co-author of the book Well Logging for Physical Properties.

After retirement Joe took up serious photography and is a member of the Livermore Valley Camera Club and the Contra Costa Camera Club. He is past President of the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs. He administers a study group for the Electronic Image Division of The Photographic Society of America (PSA), and is Director of the PSA Print of the Month competition and past Chair of the Yerba Buena Chapter of PSA..

In 2009 he was awarded the Distinction of Proficient (PPSA). In 2015 he was elected to the Honor of Fellow of PSA (FPSA). Nineteen of his articles have been published in the PSA Journal, and two portfolios have been published in the British magazine Digital Photo Art. In 2009 he received the Charles Keaton Memorial Award in recognition of his PSA publications. He made a presentation, "Rust, Rubbish, and Reflections" at the PSA 2008 Annual Conference and another, “The Innovative Image” at the 2014 Conference. In 2012 he passed the PSA course "Judging Beyond the Rules" and is now a "qualified judge." In March of 2013 his work was chosen for the Distinctive Image feature of the PSA Journal, and in September he received the Pictorial Print Division Service Medal.

Joe is a docent emeritus at Point Lobos State Reserve in California, one of the most photogenic places in the world.

He has studied with, among others, Freeman Patterson and Richard Martin, has taken a course in Miksang photography, and has been greatly influenced by the work of Ernst Haas.