My Story

Donna, my beautiful wife took this photo while we were cruising the Antarctic on Holland America Lines.

Joseph BrignoloI am retired from more than 50 years of commercial and industrial photography, now I have the time to pursue the pleasure of the art. I am the third generation of photographers in the Brignolo family. I was presented with a Brownie Box camera for my seventh birthday. My father, an internationally renowned corporate photojournalist, explained the cost of film and told me to make every shot count. When I finished my first roll, he taught me how to develop the film and print my best pictures. I was hooked. I accompanied him on several local assignments and shadowed him with my Brownie. He was impressed with my results. On my 13th birthday I was presented with a Pentax single lens reflex 35mm camera. Now I had 36 exposures per roll, but my father cautioned me, “Remember, make every shot count.” And I did.
I immediately joined the photo club at my junior high school and the advisor thought I was good enough to take pictures for the yearbook. By the time I was 16 years of age I was photo editor of my high school yearbook and a photo stringer for Time Magazine in the Fairfield County, Connecticut area. I am a self-taught photographer and adhered to the “make every shot count” rule which taught me to compose each shot with a critical eye. For practice I would copy still-life photographs out of magazines until my photographs looked exactly the same as the magazine versions. At 18 I was attending engineering school in Bridgeport, CT and working as a photographer for an advertising agency in Stamford, CT. The 40-minute commute as well as the long hours were not conducive to a decent grade point average. The solution: I started working for the Development Department at The University of Bridgeport as their photographer full time and continued my classes. Upon graduation I opened a photo studio in Stamford, Connecticut. I attracted Fortune Top 100 Companies located in the New York city metropolitan area. I continued to photographically reinvent myself until the culmination of all my creative abilities resulted in the formation of Focal Group, a market and advertising company. My lifelong journey to create the perfect photograph, whether it was for the introduction of a new product, annual report cover, or a nationwide advertising campaign is ever-present. Only now, I do it for myself. Always challenging myself to be better. As Owner and Creative Director of Focal Group it gave me the perfect environment to hone my photographic skills as well as cultivating a desire to inspire my creativity from within. Retirement was the perfect opportunity to pursue this fresh approach to showcase the world. My creative approach to marketing campaigns allowed Focal Group to be part of several new product development teams. In 1989 we won the Best New Product Award from the American Marketing Association for the successful introduction of Jello Pudding Snacks™. I was there at the first development meeting and at the launch, wrote, produced, and directed all the television commercials. Throughout my successful career as a photographer, my philosophy was to show my clients a unique way of seeing their product or industrial installation from an extraordinary perspective. This approach was refined when traveling and photographing the world as art. I mistakenly thought the process of “the self-imposed photographic assignment” was going to be fun and easy. Fun it is…easy, it is not! When you are your own client, perfection is not an option. It is an absolute necessity! Some will ask, “Have ever won any awards for your photography?” Or “Where have you exhibited your work?” The answer is very simple: I never won awards for my photography, but the clients kept coming back, and that was an award in and of itself. Sure, I had award winning campaigns which included my photography. Exhibitions; None. The uniqueness of my photographs and the creativity behind them speak for themselves. All the basics and technical aspects have been learned and filed away. They are automatic as I had them drilled into my brain by analyzing my mistakes and correcting the for the past 65 years of taking pictures. To this day I analyze every photograph; how could this be better, it this angle correct, should I wait for the right light? Perfection. Every photograph. I currently reside in Lebanon, Ohio having been born (4 November 1951) and raised in Miami, Florida. Most of my professional career was spent in Connecticut. All of my photographs were taken either on a mobility scooter or crutches as I am now physically challenged. My hobbies include astrophotography, Amateur Radio (Extra Class License), world travel, model railroading, and of course photography. I am very happily married to Donna, who is my best friend and travelling companion.

"Traveling the globe gives me the opportunity to photograph the world as never before. This is my driving force behind inspiring those who view my photos to go see the world for themselves."