Chatting with photographer extraordinaire Joseph O. Holmes (@josephoholmes) is always a treat–his work is a study in presence, light, and captured time. Holmes’s work is held in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Museum of the City of New York, the Museum of the Moving Image, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He has received numerous accolades, including a Curator’s Commendation from the Houston Center for Photography, first prize in MPLS Photo Center’s Portraits Exhibition, and honors from Silver Eye Gallery, PX3 Paris, and Photographic Center Northwest. He has also been a Critical Mass/Photolucida Top 50 and Finalist. No big deal, right? Ha! We got to ask Holmes a few questions about his work: (Photo credit for portraits of Holmes: Aoki @aokihirotsugu) 1) You so deftly capture the feeling of the landscapes you capture—looking at your work, you can often hear the quiet, feel the temperature, sense the breeze or lack thereof, etcetera. How do you feel when it's the right moment to click the camera? “I look for utter simplicity in a landscape—as in my snowy series Urban Wilderness, set in Prospect Park. I've never been able to wrap my photographic eye around a landscape that's overflowing with detail (though I do love Lee Friedlander's crazy chaotic nature images). I don't want to make my images hard work for the viewer. I'd rather they ease you in. That simplicity aspect alone helps convey the mood of the scene, the depth, even the temperature.”