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Monday, March 24, 2008
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For Halvorson, good photography can also be good for a laugh EVERYDAY PEOPLE Entertainment Editor On her first day on the job, Joey Halvorson accidentally cut off people's heads. Luckily, that job was photography, so no one got seriously hurt.
"A friend of mine got married in the early '80s," said Halvorson, 65, who lives in rural Brainerd. "She said, 'Joey, why don't you shoot my wedding?' ... I hadn't done the settings right, so the pictures came back with the bride and groom having no heads. She later got divorced and said, 'You know, now I can still use these pictures and just paste on new heads.'"
Despite the mistake, Halvorson stuck with her hobby. That's good news for art fans, who can check out her photos - most with heads intact - Saturday at the Franklin Arts Center. She will be honored as the Crossing Arts Alliance Photographer of the Year during the day of the "Picturing" workshops.
"I take life as it comes. I've gone through life laughing about stuff," she said.
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Joey Halvorson discussed her photography Friday in the Q Gallery at the Franklin Arts Center in Brainerd. The artist includes words with her photos. "I will spend a lot of time looking for the words that say, 'That's why I took this picture,'" she said. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
» Purchase reprints of this photo.
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Halvorson graduated from Brainerd High School in 1961 and Minneapolis' Augsburg College in 1965.
Joey Halvorson
Favorite musical artist: Eva Cassidy.
Favorite TV shows: "Canterbury's Law," "New Amsterdam," "Prison Break" and "Jericho."
Favorite movies: "To Kill a Mockingbird" and any musical.
Favorite book: "Five Smooth Stones" by Ann Fairbairn.
Claim to fame: Halvorson is in the Augsburg College Basketball Hall of Fame - "and not for my height." She played in the early days of women's basketball, when the season was in the fall and women played by different rules.
"We played where you could only have three dribbles and you played halfcourt," Halvorson said. "But I was a roving guard, so I could play both ways."
Although Augsburg lost only four games during Halvorson's career, they didn't go to nationals, because there was no national tournament at that level.
"The women only played in state and that was it. That's when I became the mascot, the Augie Doggie, for the men's team."
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"I graduated from college with a degree in chemistry and biology, and the only job I could get with that degree was working for the University of Minnesota agricultural campus cleaning dog kennels," she said with a laugh. "So that's when I decided I'd go back to school."
After graduating from the University of Minnesota, Halvorson worked every job under the sun - toilet-cleaner, landscaper, nanny, life-insurance seller, racquetball club manager - in the Twin Cities, New Orleans and Phoenix. In the late-'80s, she returned to Brainerd.
"I wanted to see if it was still the coolest place," she said.
It was, especially after her summer house-painting job in sweltering Phoenix.
No matter what she's doing or where she's living, Halvorson views the world through a camera lens.
"I always shot pictures from the time my mom gave me a little Brownie camera," she said. "I don't remember loving photography. I only loved basketball - sports was my life, and the camera was just fun."
The hobby became more fun for Halvorson with the emergence of Photoshop and digital cameras. A lot of her current work falls into the category of digital manipulation, and all of her photos include words that enhance the image, like a famous quote or a song lyric.
On the other hand, she likes to keep things natural. She gets her favorite shots simply by walking out her back door.
"I could fill books just taking pictures in my yard," she said. "Last night there was a raccoon eating right outside my door, and he let me take a picture of him with a flash. He even smiled."
Halvorson takes advantage of living in lake country.
"One fall I went out every day for three months and took a picture of the sunrise, and there were never two the same. Sometimes I didn't shoot the sun, I shot the weeds or a fisherman. That's something I love about photography - nothing is ever the same. Within a second, that person is not going to be smiling."
Photography still makes Halvorson smile. Although she takes some assignments - including contributing to the Dispatch's Her Voice magazine - she doesn't want her hobby to turn into a job.
"The more it becomes a job, the more I become nervous about it," she said. "I don't know how to charge people. I just say, 'Pay me what you like.' That's the hard part for me - I like to take pictures and give them away. ... I e-mail my stuff out to 200 people. Because why am I taking these pictures if I can't share them?"
JOHN HANSEN may be reached at john.hansen@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5863.
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