Joe Galacki - photo by John Galacki mid-1980s
Both of my brothers – John and Joe – have passed away from cancer (respectively in 2023 and 2019). Both were kind and talented. Joe could fix anything and he went out of his way to help friends, neighbors and relatives. He would wake up at 4 AM to carry our 23 year old dog out to the backyard because she could no longer walk. He lived a life of service. Below are a couple of photos from summer 2018 when he was already diagnosed with cancer and getting quite weak, yet insisted on fixing one of the family cars
John suffered from mental illness, but that burden did not diminish his heart nor his talent. His short comic stories as well as his library of paperbacks (Chekhov, Vonnegut, Asimov, Pirandello, Greek and Norse myths) were my first influence as a writer-to-be. He had a particularly productive decade as a photographer (35mm Pentax and a borrowed medium format camera for architectural studies) in the 1980’s.
Below are a selection of those photos, starting with a portrait of my brother Joe. Unfortunately, they are mostly cell phone photos of the originals so there will be some distortion unless I could crop them without greatly affecting the composition. The negatives are all lost. (He developed and printed all of these photos.) So these are one of a kind originals.
Some clearly show his absurdist sense of humor, recurrent images of refuse and trash or decay, as well as abstractions, and then to contradict that, pure form. The loneliness is apparent but also the beauty.
I miss them both profoundly.
Below are a selection of those photos, starting with a portrait of my brother Joe. Unfortunately, they are mostly cell phone photos of the originals so there will be some distortion unless I could crop them without greatly affecting the composition. The negatives are all lost. (He developed and printed all of these photos.) So these are one of a kind originals.
Some clearly show his absurdist sense of humor, recurrent images of refuse and trash or decay, as well as abstractions, and then to contradict that, pure form. The loneliness is apparent but also the beauty.
I miss them both profoundly.
John's photograph of an interior scene at Fort Hancock's Battery Potter - 1980s
John's photograph of a bicycle buried in the sand, Long Branch - 1980s
John's portrait of Joe wearing a respirator (which Joe used for contracting work) - 1980s
John's Still Life with Frozen Peas - 1980s
John's photo of the Sandy Hook Light House (oldest in the nation) in Winter - 1980s
(click on the slide show to expand to a full image)
John's photograph of me about 6 - 7 years old - my very favorite of myself (slightly cropped)
John's photograph Julius Galacki possibly Allaire State Park, NJ - late 1980s
John's photograph of me in the rowboat pool after the flood in the backyard - late 1960s
John's photo of me in the 1980s wearing my dad's WW 2 flight jacket
John's self-portrait, probably 1988
