Joe received his Master’s and Craftsman degrees from the Professional Photographers of America. He won Photographer of the Year three times in West Virginia and won Mid East States Photographer of the Year which includes Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and West Virginia Other awards include numerous Loan Prints, 12 Kodak Gallery Awards, and 13 Fuji Masterpiece Awards.
Joe McNemar grew up in North Central West Virginia. After graduating from high school he worked as a photographer and darkroom technician for a local professional photographer. Learning how to shoot weddings, high school seniors and print black and white negatives were the first building blocks of his craft.
Later he enrolled in the Ohio Institute of Photography in a Commercial Degree Program. Working his way through college he began photographing models and working at Dayton Daily News as a sports photographer. Shooting the Cincinnati Reds, Cincinnati Bengals and events like the Indianapolis 500 were some of the things he was assigned to do.
After graduation, Joe opened a studio in Clarksburg, West Virginia at 24 years old. High school seniors are his main form of business, but Joe does a lot of Commercial Photography. Some of those projects have been underground in coal mines, aerial photography, hospitals, gas / oil business and sports photography for West Virginia University.
In a more recent shoot he did for TIME MAGAZINE. The results will be published very soon.
In his spare time he is dad, a papaw and an avid cyclist biking more than 4000 to 5000 miles a year.