Joseph Rupp has been a freelance photographer for twenty years, and has lived and worked in Italy, the Caribbean, Taiwan and China. He currently lives in Taipei, Taiwan. His work has been found in TIME, Newsweek, The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, Business Week, Fortune, Gourmet, and many other publications. Corporate clients have included China Airlines, KLM Airlines, Cyanamid, Volvo, Chubb Insurance and IBM. He has been represented by Black Star since 1986.

During studies at the University of Iowa, one year was spent in Florence, Italy; one year was given to Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) in a hardship posting in St. Croix, the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he taught art and woodworking to Grades 1-12 students. After graduating with a BFA in photography in 1981 he spent a year and a half in Seattle before continuing further west to Asia.

In addition to working as an editor at the The China Economic News, a daily paper, Rupp began freelancing for American and European publications and businesses. As luck would have it, Taiwan in the 1980s experienced a rapid and mostly peaceful transition from martial law to a full democracy. The world was fascinated by the process, and as one of the only foreign photographers living there, he was on call frequently to document the changes. Click here to see examples of this work.

More recently, and on a personal note, I was diagnosed and treated for Stage 4 oral cancer in 2009. After completing chemo and radiation my doctors say I'm cured, although only time will truly tell. My esophagus was ruined in the process and I have not been able to eat or drink anything since February 2009. I am now a lean, mean fighting machine - ha ha. Definitely lean, sometimes mean. I have a new appreciation for life, however, and now take it one day at a time, thankful to be alive and healthy.

If you know someone who is fighting this or any other crippling or life-threatening disease, tell them you love them. Do it now and do it often.