Biography

Joey Santore is known for Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't (2019), Joe Maroni Smells Da Ceanothus, Wishes for Scented Spray for Da John. (2010) and Pillars of Magic (2020).

Joey Santore is a Chicago, Illinois native.

Joey Santore is a photographer, presenter, botanist, known for Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't (2019).

I just want people to take a closer look at the nonhuman world and ask more questions. The first steps to learning more is realizing your own ignorance, and then being willing to work beyond that.

My aim is to give people a context in which to place [the nature] they see around them. Things that were formerly bland to them become these organisms with their own evolutionary lineages. One single rock can tie a person back to the event in which that rock was created, whether it was a volcanic eruption 20 million years ago or the gradual deposition of sediments in an ocean 400 million years ago. It makes life a lot more interesting.

The tragedy here is we're destroying a lot of this as our population grows, so I guess that's where my misanthropy comes up. But I also try to keep [the videos] lighthearted. I mix tragedy with comedy to make it more digestible and less futile-seeming.