joSon (photographer)

08/21/2026

Weekend Reading: “Following His Calling: A Buddhist Monk’s Artistic Odyssey from Rural Vietnam to Globetrotting Photographer,” by writer Michael Rohm Tahoe Quarterly magazine.

I’m excited to share this 11-page cover feature in the current Summer issue of Tahoe Quarterly magazine. The story offers an interview and profile about my photography and the journey that brought me here.

If you are in the Lake Tahoe area, I hope you will pick up a copy. Otherwise, you can read the full story online through the link in my profile.
Reading the profile brought back many memories and reminded me why photography has been such an important part of my life. I hope you enjoy the images and find the story as meaningful as I did.

Please share or repost the story to help others discover my work. Thank you for your continued support.
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A heartfelt thank you to writer Michael Rohm, editor Sylas Wright, photo editor Anna Dingman, and the entire Tahoe Quarterly team for telling my story with such care.

Images shot from a helicopter. Thank you to Josh and his team for getting up at 4 a.m., again and again, in single-digit temperatures to help me photograph my Tahoe project. Tahoe Helicopters
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08/15/2026

“Hybrid Botanicals” project just won award from Communication Arts magazine (Thank you Communication Arts

I’m honored to share some wonderful news: my project, “Hybrid Botanicals”, has received an Award of Excellence and is featured in the current issue of Communication Arts magazine, Photography Annual 67.

Using a view camera and 4 × 5 film, I create these large-format analog photographs through in-camera double exposures and layered negatives, without Photoshop. Chance and imperfection allow forms to emerge as fragile, strange, beautiful, and chaotic.

Rather than portraying individual plants, the series uses botanical forms to explore nature as fragile, resilient, mysterious, and always changing. The abstract titles reflect the movement, tension, and transformation within each image.

Below are five works published in the magazine from this 20-image series. *Hybrid Botanicals* will be featured as one chapter in the second botanical book I am currently finishing. I hope you enjoy them.

1: Structure in Emergence
2: Interrupted Axis
3: Held in Transition
4: Tension in Growth
5: Split Through Light

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© joSon, 2026

06/19/2026

💀It Smells Like Death, and People Love It!
Imagine the scent of rotting meat, wet laundry forgotten in the washer for a week, spoiled cheese, overripe onions, and raw eggs mingling in the summer heat. As revolting as that sounds, thousands of people—including myself—have stood in line for hours to experience its infamous odor. Yes, the source is the Co**se Flower (Amorphophallus titanum). Towering 6 to 8 feet tall, it is one of the most extraordinary plants on Earth.

When the flower first opened, the smell reminded me of driving past a cattle feedlot. After spending several days photographing it, I became fascinated by its strange aroma. At peak bloom, the odor softened into a pungent mix of decay with hints of aged cheese and something unpleasant stuck to the bottom of your shoe.

Its giant neon-green spathe and deep burgundy interior looked unlike anything I had ever seen. By mimicking the scent of decaying flesh, the flower attracts flies and beetles that serve as its pollinators.

For me, witnessing a Co**se Flower in bloom was more than photographing a rare plant. It was a reminder that nature’s beauty does not always come wrapped in sweetness. With its fleeting appearance and unforgettable odor, this is one of those rare experiences not to be missed.

The Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco is expecting another Co**se Flower to bloom sometime in the coming week. The spectacle lasts only a few days, and from my experience, it is well worth the wait.

Photos: These images were photographed during last year’s bloom at the Conservatory of Flowers. A mature Co**se Flower may spend three to five years storing enough energy for a bloom that lasts only a few days.

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**seFlower

11/22/2025

03/20/2025

😀Happy first day of Spring! 🌱Just as the earth awakens and flowers bloom, may your mind and heart bloom with peace, compassion, and new beginnings.

Photo 1. Snow plants (Sarcodes)
Photo 2. Glen Alpine Falls, Tahoe

Check out this beautiful description from John Muir about the Snow plants Sarcodes
“The snow plant is more admired by tourists than any other in California. It is red, fleshy and watery and looks like a gigantic asparagus shoot. Soon after the snow is off the ground it rises through the dead needles and humus in the pine and fir woods like a bright glowing pillar of fire. In a week or so it grows to a height of eight or twelve inches with a diameter of an inch and a half or two inches ,then its long fringed bracts curl aside, allowing the twenty or thirty five lobed, bell-shaped flowers to pen and look straight out from the axis. It is said to grow up through the snow on the contrary, it always waits until the ground is warm, though with other early flowers it is occasionally buried or half buried for a day or two by spring storms. The entire plant-flowers, bracts, stems, scales, and roots-is fiery red. Its color could appeal to one’s blood. Nevertheless, it is a singularly cold and unsympathetic plant. Everybody admires it as a wonderful curiosity, but nobody loves it as lilies, violets, roses, daisies are loved. Without fragrance it stands beneath the pines and firs lonely and silent, as if unacquainted with any other plant in the world; never moving the wildest storms; rigid as if lifeless, through covered with beautiful rosy flowers.” —

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09/26/2024

Happy Thursday😀

🌊✨ Exciting news! Lake Tahoe has officially been recognized as the oldest lake in North America and the third oldest in the world! 🏞️ According to groundbreaking research presented at the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting, Tahoe is at least 2.3 million years old.

Dr. Winnie Kortemeier, a geosciences professor, conducted extensive studies on volcanic rock samples from the Tahoe area. Her findings indicate that the lake's unique geological history has positioned it among the world's ancient lakes. 🌋📊 This discovery places Tahoe alongside Lake Baikal and Lake Tanganyika, both of which were also formed by fault lines.

📷 Sunrises over Emerald Bay State Park, image & text © . Use with permission.

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09/26/2024

Happy Friday😀 & Enjoy your winter day!

As I left the house in the early morning darkness, with the wind moaning along , a road that separates the lush greenery, burned scars and towering pine forest from North America's largest alpine lake, Lake Tahoe. The constant sound of my windshield wiper was my companion. Reaching the viewing point at Emerald Bay, the rain began to fall heavily. Sitting in my car, I watched as the darkness gradually gave way to light, listening to the rain tapping on the roof. Breathing in the fresh winter air, I was captivated by the sun's efforts to break through the distant horizon. Dawn approached, and as the rain ceased, the cold winter air grew more intense. It was the morning after the season's first winter storm here on the lake. The storm lingered in the distance, leaving dark clouds in the sky and an invigorating freshness in the air. The early light revealed the aftermath of the storm—a dramatic interplay of light and shadow over the tranquil waters. Fannette Island stood resilient amidst the calm, a reflection of nature's resilience with the onset of winter. This moment was a poignant reminder of nature's cycles, with the pristine beauty of Emerald Bay unfolding before me as the last traces of rain vanished and winter whispered its arrival. Another beautiful day lay ahead. Moments like these are the reasons we need to protect places like .

Enjoy your winter day, wherever you are.😄

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📷 Sunrises over Emerald Bay State Park, image & text © . Use with permission.

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