In memory of Peter Moore and Joe Gioia

I haven't been writing much lately. That's about to change. 

Two previous "Casual Observers", Peter Moore and Joe Gioia, passed away and I realized it was time for me to take it over. Joe died last summer after battling cancer. Peter--who Joe and I both considered a dear friend--passed in the mid-1990s and we mourned that loss together.

To call both of these gentlemen talented writers would be to understate their value and impact on those who knew them. A brief overview; they deserve more than this but let's start here.

In the summer of 1976 Peter Moore was teaching art and architecture photography at the Germain School of Photography, nestled in 80 Nassau Street in lower Manhattan. The perfectly rumpled proffessor type, Peter clearly knew what he was doing. When he told the class that one of his clients in the 1960s was a young, obscure Fluxus artist named Yoko Ono, that was it. He had my attention.

Peter Moore, 1976 © Mason Resnick

Seven years later, I found myself doing a temp job for Modern Photography magazine and there was Peter, now the Technical Editor. We recognized each other and weeks later, my temp job became permanent and Peter and I became colleagues, a friendship that would last until his untimely passing of a heart attack some ten years later. He died while walking down the street with a Leica in his hand.

During the last year before Modern Photography was shut down by its biggest competitor, Popular Photography, Peter started writing a column, "The Casual Observer," in which he provided insightful commentary and a seasoned perspective about various technical and artistic aspects of photography to our enthusiastic readers.

I met Joe Gioia when he joined Modern Photography in the mid 1980s, and we bonded as we both worked to breathe new life to the staid old magazine. Like Peter and myself, Joe loved doing street photography and we often would spend our lunch hours photographing the tourists and business types around Midtown. Joe's writing had an interesting flair and often took unusual verbal turns. "Dog of Flanders!" was an expression he used once, and I had to look it up after falling off my chair laughing. His portraits of cricket players and experiments with expired Polaroid film were equally interesting and surprising.

Soon after Peter passed, Joe started writing "The Casual Observer" as a blog, although I don't think he kept it going very long.

So, I'm dedicating this blog to Peter and Joe's memory. I hope my version of "The Casual Observer" will continue in the spirit of providing a different perspective for photo...and life...enthusiasts.

—Mason Resnick

March 13, 2024