Experienced, passionate and creative storytelling.

Joe Newman, the owner of f8photographic, is a DC-based photographer, writer, cultural producer and media strategist. He is the founder of the Focus on the Story International Photo Festival, has organized more than a dozen photography workshops to Cuba and Vietnam, has edited three photo books published through successful Kickstarter campaigns, curated numerous exhibitions, and spent the last decade shooting assignments for various nonprofit and corporate clients. He started f8photographic in 2022 to bring his different visual storytelling passions under one roof. To see Joe’s portfolio, visit his website.

  • Currently, Joe is helping launch the iWitness Institute for Visual Journalism at Florida International University. The institute launched in March 2024 with a mission to tell the stories of democracy, climate change and immigration - among other topics - in Latin America and the Caribbean. Its inaugural cohort of fellows includes six Pulitzer Prize winners. He is developing a series of workshops, conferences and publishing projects to amplify the institute’s work.

    Since 2022, he has taught courses on public interest communications at the University of Florida as an adjunct public relations professor. He is developing a course on visual narratives that he will begin teaching in fall 2024.

    Prior to and during the contentious 2020 presidential election, he worked as a senior media strategist at ReThink Media, where he helped organizations in the democracy movement develop data-driven communication strategies focused on protecting, strengthening and expanding voting rights. Before joining ReThink, he was the communications director at the Project On Government Oversight, a DC-based nonprofit organization that investigates government corruption and advocates for a more ethical, accountable and transparent federal government.

    He began his career in public interest communications at Public Citizen, where he served as deputy director of communications and helped bring attention to a broad agenda that included government accountability, access to the justice system, health care, energy and regulatory policy.

    Prior to his time in DC, he was an award-winning reporter and editor at the Orlando Sentinel, St. Petersburg Times and The Palm Beach Post.