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Joseph P. Forster
@josseph
Landscape photographer based in Alaska
My passion for photography and travel came from a young age growing up in Queens, NYC. For hours on end I would watch National Geographic and The Discovery Channel. I was absolutely amazed by nature; it fascinated me because it’s something that I only really seen on the TV. The city was all I knew. At the same time I was always fascinated at how film can capture a piece of time and also a moment in life as if the universe stood still. I picked up my first camera, a Canon AE-1 from a family friend and began to take photos all around the city and places I went.
"When I first experienced forests, mountains and waterfalls I was in complete shock that it was untouched nature and not something man made."
Growing up in a rough family and not the most well off, I knew I had to do something about getting out of New York. As I did not graduate high school, joining the Army was the only good job I could get at the time and I knew that it would allow me to move and see something else than NYC. In 2011 I married my high school sweetheart and in 2012 I enlisted in the U.S. Army as a 12B Combat Engineer. After Basic Combat Training I was stationed in Fort Riley, Kansas.
"Moving to Kansas was a huge culture shock for my wife and I; we had never seen such vast open land and actual farms and pastures with cows and sheep."
The city was all we knew so seeing the countryside really put everything into perspective. I instantly knew this is what I wanted. I wasn’t made for the city life. In the city I felt so restricted, but living in a rural area felt so freeing. It was the first time I could actually experience that and it helped me to place my feelings and understand how important our surroundings are for our mental wellbeing. Suddenly everything felt so much more correct.
"After Kansas I got orders to move to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA. Once I got to Washington, seeing the mountains and the forests, I got addicted to the outdoors."
I bought a canon 6D and started to take photos everywhere I went. I have been in a lot of unfortunate situations in my life and I deal with depression, anxiety and anger issues that are sometimes tough to control. Photography and the outdoors quickly became a therapy for me. Getting out on a nice long hike or spending a couple nights out under the stars really gets my mind off of troubling times and put me at ease.
The more I hiked and camped the more photos I took. I started to collect a lot of photos and it reminded me of when I was young running around the city taking photos and not sharing them. So I started to share my photos on Instagram and it took off from there.
"For three years living in Washington every single weekend I would go out and explore either by myself or with my family."
The biggest obstacle with that though, was getting the money to get where I wanted to go. Sometimes I would plan a trip but didn’t have the funds to make it happen. I was fortunate enough to have a job so I started to save gas money to fuel my road trips. On more occasions than I can count I would sleep in my car at trailheads or dark roads just to save money. I would buy and bring the essential foods with me.
"Peanut butter & Jelly sandwich definitely was my dinner on multiple hikes!"
After having lived three years in Washington, I got the opportunity to re enlist and pick a state I wanted to go that was available. Alaska it was, no doubts. So in 2019 the family and I hit the road and drove from Washington State to Alaska. That is where we did the most wonderful trip ever. Surprisingly I won an editing contest hosted by Fort Wainwright MWR using #alaskanbuketlist. The first prize was a hotel stay in Denali and so we went off, a couple of weeks later, driving down to Denali National Park and the old Denali Highway.
I remember stopping the car – again – and enjoying the view from a little back road we had taken. All I could hear is the wind gently blowing through the landscape making its way down from the mountains. Simply amazing. That same night, as a good light storm was forecast, we went to a park hoping to see the northern lights. And we did. Although the kids wouldn’t wake up back in the car, my wife and I enjoyed this natural phenomenon for a few hours, looking at the lights appearing in green, blue, pink or purple. Pure happiness.
I have taken some of my favorite photos to date during that trip. These photos still bring back that feeling of happiness. That is the power of photography and the edit. When editing a photo I try to create what I saw when I took it with a slight twist of what I remember using my imagination. I have photographic memory and I like to emphasize colors that I see when envisioning what I saw in my head. I see the colors green, blue and white pretty strongly and like to reflect that in my work. I think I’m attracted to those colors because they’re very soothing colors and put the mind at ease.
"It took a long time editing photos, years actually, to finally figure out how to transfer as exactly as possible my imagination to the photo so it conveyed what I was seeing and feeling."
"This process was also influenced - or restrained - by worries about what others may think."
Being judged in today’s world weighs heavy on everyone. I would always tell my wife I didn’t think my work was good enough or my edits aren’t appealing and no one would be interested. These thoughts and feelings I had really stopped me from doing what I love to do. The strength to change this and start being myself came from my wife. She would always tell me “who cares what other people think. Just do whatever you like to do and edit your photos the way you feel they should be, and forget the rest. They do what they like, you do what you like. There’s something different to like for everyone.”
Regardless of what others thought. By always striving and doing what I dream about I developed myself personally and this is when I truly found that as long as I am doing what makes me happy, like minded people won’t judge at all. And those that do judge on whatever, I shouldn’t give importance to because it doesn’t contribute to my happiness. There is a big difference between judging and constructive feedback. And there is a difference between sharing different point of views and disrespecting other perspectives. It’s very important to keep that in mind and decide who you give “permission” to influence your state of mind and in what way.
"I learnt that all that matters at the end, is that I feel happy with whatever I do. That I make myself happy."
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