BIOGRAPHY

Joseph Moché held a camera for the first time in second grade.  In the decades that followed, he has used cameras and photographic techniques to document his dreams and nightmares.  His long career and changing interests have led to a wide yet coherent body of work.  Following his retirement from public school teaching, he has devoted his full time to revisiting his vintage work and creating unique perspectives of current issues.

Mr. Moché uses both film and digital equipment and processes.  He lives in and works out of Woodland Hills, California.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

My attachment to photography is a product of the 60's.  It was a time of great sadness tempered by hope.  For many of my generation, the hope was best exemplified by the candidacy of Robert F. Kennedy.  I saw him speak in March, 1968 at San Fernando Valley State College where, six months later, I would enroll as a Freshman.  Between Kennedy's speech and my enrollment, both he and Martin Luther King would be assassinated, and my political views were radicalized.  For the next five years, I attended every anti-war or anti-Nixon rally I could get to, and I always had my camera with me.

With the end of the US involvement in Vietnam and the subsequent resignation of Nixon, large scale demonstrations ended.  I lost my preferred subject and with it my motivation.  The birth of our son necessitated a larger house and with the move I lost my darkroom.  The arrival of digital is what brought me back to photography.  

In his campaign speeches, Kennedy often quoted George Bernard Shaw.   "Some men see things as they are and say 'Why?' I dream things that never were and ask 'Why not?'"  That is what I do with my photographs.