Biography

Joel Stensberg has been taking pictures pretty much most of his life.  He got serious about it his Sophomore year of High School when he took a photography course and continued shooting for the school Yearbook (where he also was a section editor) and Newspaper, from there he continued his photographic education in college where is was the Photo Editor for the Campus Newspaper at UW - Marathon County and the UW - Eau Claire Periscope (yearbook), along with being a staff photographer for the campus newspaper.

After graduating in December of 1983 with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Art, he spent 2 1/2 years as thee Staff Photographer for the Monroe Evening Times in Monroe, Wisconsin.   While there he earn numerous kudos and awards for his hard news photo coverage, opinion columns, feature writing and sports photography.  He also freelanced for a host of local businesses, doing commercial work for them.  Upon leaving the newspaper, he was pretty much burnt out and admittedly, "Threw my cameras in the corner of a closet where they sat for about 10 years" before he pulled them out and started dabbling again.

In 1998 a co-worker's daughter needed some pictures for her portfolio, so he shot her and a few of her friends.  Then he, as he puts it, "In a really long boring story" he walked into to a shoot in Portland Oregon while on a business trip that got him some regional and national attention for his model photography.

In 2000 he and James Falkfoske hosted the Model Meets where photographers and models got together to network.  He also began seriously working on honing his craft; seeking advice from agents, makeup artists and other industry professionals.  It is his hard work and continuous thirst for knowledge and development of top notch team members, that has lead him to be recognized as one of top model portfolio shooters in Wisconsin and throughout the Midwest.  He is known for his laid-back approach and easy-going way of directing models, easily earning their trust, while working with them to generate the right images for his clients.

He also has developed some commercial clientele and his work has appeared on billboards, in newspaper advertisements, on posters and in corporate brochures.  He also has been published in Easy Riders magazine.

Joel continues to work with models, both beginning and experienced, from all over Wisconsin and nationally.  He is willing to help models take their careers as far as they want to, with the people he has developed network connections with throughout the years.