Capturing Beauty

The Blue Iris pictured above is an example of the combined photographic art and poetry that you will find at Joe Barr’s website.
Capturing Beauty is the result of the collaboration between Joe Barr and Suzanne Simonovich.
Starting in May of 2007, they have been posting daily visual poems; Joe’s striking photography accompanied by Suzanne’s sometimes passionate, sometimes soothing words ( Joe likes to call her “the voice of the flowers”).

Let’s meet Joe and Suzanne

Joe Barr

I am a 65 year old divorced male, and, in large part, a product of my age and time. From small town Ohio, a facility in math and science led to an engineering degree from a Big Ten university.

A first generation college grad, an international corporation paid me very generous sums to sit and think 8 to 10 hours a day. In short order a lack of regular challenges grew into boredom and I migrated to the new and wondrous world of sales and marketing. An ability to listen resulted in success and the opportunity to meet and learn from a world of bright and interesting people.

I can’t paint. I can’t sculpt. I sure can’t sing and I am retired from dancing. I am unable to create beauty, but from time to time I am able to capture some of the beauty around us. I think it satisfies some frustrated creative instinct. I enjoy the process.

I am retired on disability. My coordination is mildly impaired. In my case it presents mainly in my speech and walk. The effects are controllable to a degree. They become most obvious when my concentration and energy level waiver. My speech becomes notably thicker and Ginger would no longer mistake me for Fred.

The lack of an occupation has allowed me to reinvigorate and old, old hobby. I think I was 12 when we moved into a house with a small, ramshackle darkroom in the basement. I discovered a new world of wonder. A recent first step into the world of digital photography with its inherent rapid feedback has help me sharpen some rusty skills.

I hope seeing my efforts grants you some small portion of the pleasure I gain in capturing it.

Suzanne Simonovich

Suzanne Simonovich was born in Chicago Illinois where she attended parochial schools and once had the inclination to become a Nun! Lucky for her husband of 31 years and six children she chose a more spontaneous lifestyle…The museums on Lake Shore Drive offered an educational playground; but the architectural beauty of the city’s church’s are what still amaze her today.

As Vice-president of a Commercial Financial Corporation, Suzanne finds great rewards in watching her company of 18 years grow, as an experienced team places homeowners and business owners in “perfect fit” loan programs.
Currently she has found the time to pursue a persistent, desire to write, to share with everyone a perception of humanity. “I feel a call to educate, inspire, and amuse, or encourage a tear of compassion; to leave a legacy of love for myself and for my mother who made an unselfish career choice of motherhood in lieu of journalism. In retrospect I believe I can keep her memory alive by writing, I know she would be keen on the idea of me penning a book in her honor.”

While currently working on that premise, she also finds delight in writing about the beauty photographer Joe Barr has captured in flowers.

“I’m having fun!” I can’t wait to see a new flower appear in my inbox. Whether I am at the office, or at home snuggled up in comfy quilts with my hair in a pony tail, I am so relaxed…so intrigued by what the camera has conveyed …I look at the flower carefully, sensitive to the texture, color and light that is each flower; I close my eyes, at times I whisper a prayer and then amazing things happen…words become more than a phrase or a sentence… they are the actual message portrayed, as each flower takes on their own personality.

Suzanne also keeps company with the Kenosha Writers’ Group and workshops in the Kenosha area. She has a shared obsession to distinguish truth and fiction, finding intrigue in those that have the uncanny ability to amalgamate the two, into fascinating prose.

Joe Barr and Suzanne Simonovich, you have been “Exposed”