JWG Photography is a family company. Joe Gallahan, son of J.W. Gallahan, began photographing horses on his father’s property with his mother’s Vivitar 110 to submit to the American Quarter Horse and American Paint Horse Associations. Landscapes and snapshots of the horsemen around him creating a passion in his life that would later serve as salvation.
A Native Texan, Joe Gallahan traveled the state with his family to follow his father’s job assignments with the Texas Employment Commission (now the TWC). From El Paso to Corpus Christi, Tyler to Austin, the rancher’s son was exposed to the multicultural microcosms of our great state throughout his life. Joe also had the benefit of visiting family on the West Coast during the summers and traveling as his bartending and waiter jobs would carry him. A graduate of McCallum High and senior-year-drop-out of Southwest Texas State, Joe took what little he allowed himself to learn in school and did what most everyone else in Austin was doing: bartending. Spinning his wheels long enough and exhausting his travel funds, Joe returned to photography after losing a dear and close friend in an automobile accident that haunts him to this day. Defining his life by loss and tragedy, the mercurial photographer discovered patience and solace in the craft of darkroom developing. The amber light and solitude served the young man well as brooding turned to creativity, and anger into passion.
The new rise of digital photography was alien in process to Joe, so back to school he went. Austin Community College’s Photographic Technology department has presented a great platform in which digital asset management and commercial photography has interwoven within Joe’s creative lighting styles. He has completely the commercial/advertising curriculum and is currently enrolled in both wedding and fashion photography classes to stay on the forefront of modern concepts and demands of photography’s ever-changing trends.
JWG Photography is operated by Joe’s mother, Luci Gallahan, a semi-retired manager from the City of Austin. Within the home office in South Austin, she manages the website launch, daily scheduling operations and administrative duties of the business. Joe continues to do exactly what he wants: photograph. He has the privilege of working with and for other amazing photographers and photo editors in Central Texas who help reign him in from time to time, keeping the drive in the direction of creativity and less towards the absurdly abstract. Joe’s father is still in denial of Joe’s choice of career but supports him none-the-less with landscapes, woods, waterscapes, and horses for classic compositions from the family property in East Texas.
You can continue to find out more about Joe as he and his crew tromp through Central Texas making a scene where ever they roam, and photographing it all for your enjoyment. Check out the blog to keep tabs and add us on twitter!