Joseph Sohm

Joseph Sohm is an American history teacher turned producer-author and public speaker. Mr. Sohm is both student and teacher of America's past, present and future. He founded Visions of America (TM) as an ongoing multimedia project dedicated to capturing the American spirit in print and media presentations. Spanning thirty years, Sohm has traveled and photographed all 50 states. Images from his Visions of America collection are published approximately 8,000 -10,000 times a year worldwide, through his photo agencies Getty Images, Corbis and Alamy.

Photographer

His images of America are published daily around the world in magazines such as National Geographic, Newsweek and Time; on book covers by Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, McGraw-Hill, Macmillan and Prentice-Hall; on CD covers by Warner Brothers, Atlantic Records and CBS/Sony; and in advertising for clients such as IBM, AOL, Kodak, Delta Air Lines, Microsoft, MCI, General Electric, Pepsi, Sony, Ford and Toshiba. His images have been featured on CNN, MSNBC, PBS, Discovery, History Channel, NBC's Today Show and ABC's Good Morning America. Frontline’s “The Choice 2008” on PBS featured many of his presidential images. On December 18, 2000, his image of the U.S. Constitution appeared on the presidential election covers of both Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report. His image of the U.S. Capitol was featured on the cover of John Grisham’s book, The King of Torts. His images are exhibited at American Embassies for the U.S. Department of State, New York's Neikrug Gallery, LA's Ira Roberts Gallery, First Boston Corporation and have been displayed in Bill Gates personal home on flatscreen digital displays. His work is featured in former Vice President Al Gore’s Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth feature-film and lecture, in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and in the opening sequence of Bill Maher’s Real Time on HBO. In 2008, Bank of America used Sohm’s photograph for the “Official Credit Card” for the U.S. Olympic Committee and the Summer Olympics. On July 3–4-5, 2008, his work was featured throughout Washington, D.C.’s Newseum Museum, which included a thirty-minute TV interview with Mr. Sohm. On June 23, 2008, he was a featured speaker at the Museum of the City of New York, where he followed Mayors Michael Bloomberg and Ed Koch.

In 1996 he published Visions of America, the world's first global stock photography catalogue on America and the first by one photographer. The catalogue is represented in 36 nations and received a "Creative 26" Award of Distinction. In 2000, he published Pan-America with Corbis Images (owned by Bill Gates) - the first panorama stock catalogue exclusively on America.

For Vice President Al Gore’s 2000 Democratic National Convention, he was the “Official Image Supplier” of Americana photographs for worldwide news coverage, network convention broadcast and live Internet broadcast. On September 11, 2002, in memory of 9/11, his work was featured throughout NBC’s network television broadcast of the “Concert For America,” attended by President Bush. His images are featured throughout President Clinton’s Presidential Library, as managed by the National Archives of the United States, and on the back-cover of President Clinton’s presidential top-selling biography, My Life. Joseph is an ongoing contributor to the non-partisan charitable foundation, “The Close Up Foundation, “ a Washington, D.C. non-profit that brings students from across America to see “Close Up,” how the U.S. federal government works. He serves as a Board of Director of the Museum of Democracy in New York City and the New West Symphony in California.

Author-Producer

In 2009, Joseph Sohm wrote, photographed and published – Visions of America – Photographing Democracy, a 322-page coffee table book featuring 1,300 images taken across the 50 states. The book features 21 of Sohm’s essays and a foreword by legendary travel writer, Paul Theroux. It won the 2009 Gold Medal “IPPY” Award for best tabletop book in the Independent Publisher Book Awards. It was also featured in a presentation at the National Press Club that aired on CSPAN-2 on June 27, 2009 with encore showings on July 4, 2009

Sohm also wrote a script that Clint Eastwood read for his Photo Symphony based upon the book, Visions of America. The original symphony concert featured a 66-piece orchestra conducted by two-time Grammy-winning Peter Nero and the Philly Pops. The 66-minute score featured the music of Oscar-nominated and Grammy winning Roger Kellaway and two songs by Oscar-Grammy-Tony winners, Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman. The songs were performed by 2008 Grammy winner, Patti Austin. All five concerts featured Joseph’s photographs as they were projected onto a 30-foot screen over the orchestra. The five concerts performed at Kimmel Center/Verizon Hall for a total of 12,500 people. The concert was introduced on video by Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and attended by Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. The concert is currently being prepared for future symphonic presentations across America.

The 1993 Presidential Inaugural Committee commissioned Joseph to create, produce and photograph President Clinton's "Official Inaugural Video." Featuring the music of Michael Jackson and David Crosby, "Portrait of Change" aired on worldwide television including MTV, CNN, CBS, NBC, BBC, Dutch and Japanese television. He conceived President Clinton's favorite Inaugural Program, "Bells of Hope," which featured bells ringing across America, around the world and even in the Space Shuttle above Earth. For President Reagan's U.S. Commission on the Bicentennial of the Constitution, Sohm was commissioned to photograph and produce two touring multi-media shows for Merrill Lynch and Philadelphia's "We The People." “NEWORLD” featured the narration of William Shatner and performed at colleges and universities across America.

In 1996, the Washington, D.C. based Close Up Foundation commissioned Joseph to produce their 25th anniversary music video. Entitled "Voices For Tomorrow," the video premiered live to leading members of the U.S. Congress, C-Span's CEO Brian Lamb and ABC correspondent Coke Roberts. In 2005, he premiered his new music-video, “We The People,” co-written by the Academy Award winning songwriting team of Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman and Grammy Award winner, Roger Kellaway. In 2005, the music-video premiered in Washington, D.C. on large-screens for members of the U. S. Congress and members of both the Clinton and Bush Administrations.

In 2000, Joseph conceived, photographed and wrote an essay for New York Times best-selling author, Marianne Williamson. Published by Rodale, “IMAGINE – What America Could Be in the 21st Century” sold-out of its first print-run of 125,000 copies. Essays by Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Neale Donald Walsch and Thomas Moore are featured. He wrote a feature-length screenplay (Silver Medal Winner in the Houston Film Festival) under the direction of Academy Award Winning Film Director Robert Wise (“Sound of Music” & “Westside Story”) and a script starring actor William Shatner.

Public Speaker

Joseph Sohm is represented by Experience Partners in Boston, www.Exp-Partners.com. He has made more than 100 lecture appearances across the United States at universities, colleges and trade associations. He has been featured as a speaker with Mayors Michael Bloomberg and Ed Koch in New York City and with FDIC Chairman, William Seidman.

As a member of the press, he has been featured in: LA Times, New York Times, San Francisco Examiner, St. Louis Post Dispatch, C-SPAN and on Century Cable in Los Angeles. In 1998, the Japanese edition of Esquire profiled Joseph for an endorsement of Casio watches. More recently, he has been featured twice in Lexus Magazine.

He is a graduate of the University of Missouri with a B.S. in American History and was awarded a Gold Medal in the New York International Film Festival. He was chosen by Audio Visual Communications magazine as one of 10 "Communicators of the Year." He has served as a Board Member for the Washington, D.C. based “Earth Force,” for the New York City based “Museum of Democracy” and in Ventura County California, for the New West Symphony. Mr. Sohm resides in Ojai, California with his wife Leslie.

Visions of America is available for bookings with orchestras across America. It is also available for non-live HD presentations featuring Joseph Sohm as public speaker. Fine-art prints, books, DVD’s, CD’s and merchandise are available at: www.visionsofamerica.com. For additional information call 800-SOHM-USA.

About the book

Visions of America addresses a single question: How do you photograph democracy? After all, democracy is an “idea,” and not something one can easily wrap one’s lens around. But photographing democracy is indeed what Joseph Sohm has done in this epic journey across the fifty states. To capture this country’s incredible diversity, Sohm framed his national work as Georges-Pierre Seurat might a pointillist painting. With each photograph, an individual dot was applied to his American canvas. Spanning three decades, tens of thousands of images were assembled in what becomes a compelling mosaic.

With a foreword by legendary travel writer, Paul Theroux, and lyrics by two of America’s most distinguished songwriters, Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman, Visions of America is a work of historic value and significance. Visions of America is a perceptive work about both the photographer and the photographed. Reflecting on the wisdom of the founders, coupled with personal observations about American history, Sohm takes us on an insightful journey down the back roads and byways of the U.S., ultimately leading to a deeper understanding and appreciation of who we are as a nation and a people. Visions of America is a sweeping portrait of life in the American democracy, a portrait that shows us US, the United States.