A hundred coworkers are awaiting your direction. Ten cameras are ready to roll. One multi-platinum recording artist is displaying his or her oversized ego.
Whew. Now those are stressful situations. No wonder producer and director Joe Brandmeier retreats up north.
The long-time Edina resident has recorded with Motley Crew, Run DMC and Garrison Keillor, produced for MTV, NBC and PBS, and shot on location in the Philippines and in Africa. But he much prefers the solitude and serenity of the north country.
With his camera as the only companion, Brandmeier has captured nature in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin as well as Michigan, California and Alaska. He compiled more than 80 of his photographs with favorite quotes from family, friends and the scholarly for his hardcover book Up North: Reflections, Moments & Memories. (TRISTAN Publishing, June 2011)
Before he collaborated with Prince and Wyclef, Brandmeier was but a boy relaxing, fishing and hunting at his family’s cabin in northern Wisconsin.
“I slowly learned to love going up there because that was our escape,” Brandmeier says.
But Brandmeier’s book isn’t about his experiences. It’s about sharing in our collective escapes to the land of peace, pines and pike-filled lakes.
Since the book was released last year, many readers have shared their stories during book signings or promotions. One image prompted a reader to talk about a sunset on the Fourth of July. Another shot generated a story about how a bear got into one’s garbage.
“People will come up to me and literally put themselves in the book because you don’t see cabins, you don’t see people or structures,” Brandmeier says. “You see a feel and a place because it’s anybody’s ‘up north’.”
Brandmeier appreciates others’ stories so much that he called on his brothers, wife, children, friends and some famous scholars for quotes about what the outdoors means to them. Each page alternates between the famous and the familial, offering prescient words from the likes of Albert Einstein, Jeffy Brandmeier, Socrates, Belinda Jensen, Jordan Brandmeier, Leo Tolstoy, Frank Vascellaro and Charles Lindberg.
Here are two of Brandmeimer’s favorites:
John Muir: “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”
Dr. Patch Adams: “Nature tops the list of potent tranquilizers and stress reducers. The mere sound of moving water has been shown to lower blood pressure.”
Brandmeier’s wife, Joan Steffand, is quoted twice in the book, and she testifies how nature impacts her husband.
“Joe is a very kinetic kind of guy,” she says. “He is always moving and looking for something to do. It’s that kind of energy. If he has a project, he is working on it all the time. He is always busy, physically, mentally, everything. But when he has his camera, he can sit still for long periods of time. It gives him the sense of being grounded. It gives him a completely different energy. You can see it from the pictures he produces from those moments.
Brandmeier met Steffand when they worked together at KARE 11. Steffand was an anchor; Brandmeier was a photographer and editor. From there, Brandmeier started Moving Pictures Inc. His first gig was with Motley Crew for MTV’s Rockumentary series.
The work came through Brandmeier’s willingness to unabashedly pitch his services.
“If I see an artist, I will literally go knock on the door in any form or fashion and ask if they will let us get together,” Brandmeier says. “I’m not the type of guy who will wait around for the phone to ring because it just doesn’t happen. You have to go find the gigs.”
Brandmeier does the same with his photography. He will ask locals if they have seen any bears lately or if they know the location of a good lake to shoot the sunset.
“You need to have passion for what you are doing or what you are shooting,” he says. “For me, I have huge passion for ‘up north,’ so it was easy for me to sit there and watch as nature and life went by. Then all of a sudden, you turn around and there is a 500-pound black bear. That comes from patience and being in the right place at the right time.”
