About Joseph Kayne

Joseph Kayne

Joseph Kayne photographs the American landscape, the Heartland, and Native American archaeological sites with a 4x5 large format view camera. His latest projects, involve working in the rare antique process, known as Wet Plate Collodion Tintype photography, using an 8x10 old wooden camera and a brass Petzval lens from 1870. Joe’s photographs have been exhibited in galleries, museums, and private collections across the country, including the Heard Museum and the Museum of Natural History, and his tintype of Deb Haaland was shown on The Rachel Maddow Show. His clients include The Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club, National Audubon Society, CF Martin Guitar Co., and the U.S. Department of Energy. Joe has a rare collection of large format images of the tallgrass prairies and American barns. He was one of the first color photographers to portray the Anasazi archeological sites and dwellings as an art form, and he is well known for his barn images and large format nature photography. Joe was awarded 3 artist in residencies by the U.S. National Park Service at the historic Navajo trading post, Hubbell Trading Post in the heart of Navajo Nation.

Joseph Kayne

Joe’s interest in photography started while he was working in archaeology in Egypt and Israel during his college years. He received an art grant from the City of Chicago and has been a featured lecturer at the View Camera Magazine Large Format Photography Conference. Joe’s publication credits include: Lenswork, View Camera magazine, Sierra Club, Arizona Highways, Outside Magazine, Audubon Calendars (cover), Nature Conservancy (cover), Photo Life magazine, Natural History magazine, Chicago Tribune,and LEADING THE WAY—the Wisdom of the Navajo People, a teaching magazine . Joe was a featured photographer and named a “Lord of the Landscape” in Outdoor Photographer magazine’s landscape collector’s issue and is recognized as a long time large format nature photographer. Joe's images have been presented on The New York Times LENS live blog.

Joe's Navajo & Hopi Tintypes are part of the The Chicago Project representation at the Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago. Three of Joe's photographs were included in EGO, a photo exhibition with a focus on the exploitation, glorification and objectification of the individual, in the main gallery at the Zhou B Art Center, Chicago (August-September 2013). His images have also been included in exhibits at Southeast Center for Photography, Jackson-Junge Gallery in Chicago, and Perspective Photography Gallery, and Evanston Art Center, in Evanston, Illinois. Several of Joe's tintype images are part of the Native curated exhibit Of This Place at the Burpee Museum of Natural History in Rockford, Illinois. One of Joe's tintypes of a Navajo woman with a MMIW handprint was selected for the 2023 LENS international juried show at Perspective Gallery (Christa Dix, juror). VICINITY2023, Perspective Gallery (juror Kristin Taylor, Curator of Academic Programs & Collections at the Museum of Contemporary Photography).Joe is an ally and frequently supports and donates to Native causes.