DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER / SMITHSONIAN PHOTOGRAPHER (?!):
In March 2020, when the pandemic hit the Unites States, everything shut down. My calendar emptied out. When you're a freelance worker living on the road, that takes your housing and roots with you. So I decided to embark on an epic road trip and ambitious project: Document the shutting down of America. I've put the entire 3 week, 17 city, 8600 mile journey into a new documentary currently making the film festival circuit. The photos from my journey have been acquired by the Smithsonian Institution for their archives. It's their biggest acquisition of photographs from that unique time period.

​TRAVEL

Snorkeling off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii
I’m on n a constant search to quench my wanderlust. Since I was born to an Austrian mother, I spent most of my youth shuttling between the U.S. and Europe. My obsession with road trips clicked in high school when I would take every chance I got to hit the open road with friends and explore what New Mexico (my home state) and surrounding states had to offer.
I’ve visited all 50 states and have set my eyes on the rest of the world.
My backpack is always within reach...
Travel is more than a hobby, it’s a lifestyle. I’ve spent the bulk of my life whirling around the world by plane, train, bus, car and even dog sled. There’s so much to see, so many stories to tell, so much culture to experience, so many people to meet and so many miles to travel. These are some of the highlights:

​FITNESS / RACING

Joel has been into fitness ever since he first stepped into a gym in high school to join the football and wrestling teams. He's never been far from a weight room or yoga studio but discovered a new-found passion for competition and pushing yourself when he joined the Team 2 End AIDS to raise money for AIDS Project Los Angeles by running the 2011 LA Marathon. Finishing in just over 4 hours, this only motivated him to jump into more races, and eventually break a 4-hour marathon...
His reawakened competitive spirit has led him to take up Mud Runs and Obstacle Racing.  He's earned 2 Spartan Trifecta Medals, qualified for the World Championship of Obstacle Course racing twice, was the overall winner in the inaugural Escape Race, consulted on Laird Hamilton's new endurance race series, and competes regularly in whatever race he can find that involves running, jumping, swimming, climbing, throwing, scaling, lifting and a free beer coupon.
Since then, Joel has gone back and run the LA Marathon 2 more times, the NY Marathon and, most recently, ran the Athens Authentic Marathon (the reason Marathons are, well, called marathons). With "T2," he's also competed in the Malibu Triathlon, Concrete Hero and Camp Pendleton Mud Run, all while raising money to help those living with HIV/AIDS. It's become such a passion for him, he currently coaches a Boot Camp with T2 to prep people to race in the Camp Pendleton Mud Run.