JWG Photography is a family shared photography company. Joey Gallahan, son of J.W. Gallahan, began photographing registered paint and quarter 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, cattlemen, ferriers, and riders around him created a passion in his life that would later serve as his salvation.
A Native Texan, Joey Gallahan traveled the width of the Lone Star 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. Joey 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 and waiter jobs which would would barely support him throughout his travels. Spinning his wheels long enough and exhausting his travel funds, Joe returned to photography after losing a dear and close friend and partner 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. It wasn't long before Joey took to expressing himself through the elements of his photography.
The new rise of digital photography was alien in process to Joey who still reeled his own film and spent countless hours in the darkroom producing art that the economy simply wouldn't tolerate, 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 completed 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 managed by Joey's mother, Luci Gallahan, a semi-retired manager from the City of Austin. Within the home office in North Austin, she manages the calendar and bills, daily scheduling operations and administrative duties of the business. Also within the company, Joey's cousin Andrew Miller mananges production of many of the products we feature such as photo magnets and button pins, as well as managing staffing and talent for the creating photographic art series such as the Dias de los Muertos and the Daily Luchador. Joey continues to do exactly what he wants: photograph as often as he can. 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. Joey's father is still in denial of Joey's choice of career but supports him none-the-less with vignettes of landscapes, woods, waterscapes, and horses for classic compositions from the family property in East Texas.
You can continue to find out more about Joey as he and his crew tromp through Central Texas making a scene where ever they roam, and photographing it all for your enjoyment. You can find examples of Joey's work in the Austin Music Hall VIP Lounge, various shows and events in Austin, and one this new blog which was ingeniously tied to the newly designed and revamped website by my friend and former coworker, Suzie Jurado. Check out the blog, add us on twitter, and "Like" us on Facebook! Find these links on our Contact Page.