J.B. Hall (Born 1963) was born in Springfield, Illinois and before settling in the Chicago area, he relocated several times in the upper Great Lakes region. It was while he was in high school that his artistic interest began. That was when his art teacher reprimanded him for making his weaving too tight. He teamed up with some of his classmates and they started making things that looked unnecessary but in real sense had practical sensibility. After high school he joined Beloit College in Wisconsin where earned a degree in Geology, with a strong background in Art History. With no immediate direction in mind, Hall decided to move to New Hampshire where he worked in construction for awhile before heading to Arizona for the warmer weather.
The diverse students he met in college and his years of relocation as an adolescent gave him the ability to view the same subject from a different perspective and shaped his versatile nature. He began work in an art studio frame shop and quickly, under a Master Printmaker, began an apprenticeship. He embraced his tutelage and developed his own style with photography. Hal used his view of the perspective of an individual as the foundation of his “Truth is Perception” statement. He is not afraid to fail at an experience, but trusts that success comes from trial and error. This is what he has to say about his daily struggles: “Each chapter or piece is an incomplete exercise and can be pounded and reshaped into a success.”