Joe Salvatore, a professor in the Steinhardt school, is one of the Faculty Fellows in Residence, living at Third North. His partner, Craig Hamrick, is an author and photographer. Below you can read some biographical information about Craig -- and you can read more and see galleries of his photography work at www.craighamrick.com. For information about Joe, click here.

About Craig

I grew up in a small Kansas town called Coffeyville, and studied journalism at Kansas State University. After college I worked at a few Kansas-based livestock magazines, but I decided that writing about cows was not my calling. I moved to New York City in October 1994, the day before my 28th birthday. I had a round-trip ticket, but I tore that thing up. I knew the day I arrived that I would never chose to live anyplace else again.

I freelanced for a while, as a graphic designer and editor, eventually landing at Computer Shopper magazine, where I was assistant managing editor for a couple of years. Then, like a lot of NYC journalists, I was offered a ridiculous amount of money to do practically nothing at a website, and I went for it. Even as bad as I am at math, I knew that business formula was flawed, so I wasn't surprised when soon the "dot com bubble" popped and I found myself with a nice severance package and time to think about what I really wanted to do when I grew up.

I'd always loved photography, and it had been part of many of my journalism jobs over the years. But now I decided to really turn my attention to the art of photography. I opened my own studio in Tribeca, where I shot portraits -- specializing in male nudes. Business was terrific, and I also kept my hand in the journalism world, managing media projects, like a series of magazines for Gateway Computers (The Gateway Guide), and two special issues of Fortune magazine.

This was about the time I met a special guy named Joe Salvatore. Joe was writing a play called "mindlynes," which was based on the life of a photographer named George Platt Lynes. Lynes had pioneered male nude photography in the early 20th century, and as research for the script, Joe wanted to interview a contemporary photographer who did the same kind of work. He found my studio's website. Joe emailed me to set up an interview; flirted shamelessly; and the rest is history. :) Actually, Joe behaved very professionally, but we quickly bonded over our mutual love of pop culture and "classic" TV. We dated for about two years before we moved in together, into the Brooklyn apartment where Joe had lived since moving to New York several years earlier.

Unfortunately, our "honeymoon" period was rudely interrupted. Just a few months after I moved in, I was diagnosed with colon cancer. I'd been battling flu-like symptoms for over a year, but none of my doctors thought it was serious. Eventually a colonoscopy proved otherwise.

I had no family history of colon cancer, and at 37 I was in the best health of my life. (As a kid, I had to be dragged to gym class; but as a gay man in New York, I'd learned to love working out.) So I was more than a little surprised to learn about the golf-ball-sized timebomb inside my body. I opted for a mixture of surgery and chemotherapy, so the tumor was quickly removed, but that surgery revealed that the cancer had spread far beyond my colon -- to my liver, and further on to my lungs. That wasn't good news.

You can read more about my ongoing battle with colon cancer on my website www.craighamrick.com -- and I may write more about it here in the future.

Joe has been an amazing support throughout this very challenging situation. Just about everything in our lives was changed in one way or another by that diagnosis. And he has been unwavering in his dedication to helping me get through it and maintain as "normal" a life as we can.

I was able to work at my photo studio for a while, but eventually the effects of chemotherapy made it too difficult to keep it open. I still do occasional photography jobs, but I've shifted much of my artistic focus to writing. I wrote my first book about TV trivia in 1991 (The Dark Shadows Collectors Guide) and since then I've written about half dozen more. (You can visit www.darkshadowsonline.com for info about my DS books, and www.craighamrick.com for info about my other books, and my photography.) Just this year, I realized a life-long dream and wrote two articles for TV Guide, the magazine I read from cover-to-cover from the moment I was old enough to read.

My cancer treatment is ongoing. Over the past three years I've had several surgeries and dozens of chemotherapy treatments. The effects range from very exhausting to practically unnoticeable. There are months at a time when I would barely know I have any health problems -- if I didn't know those evil cells are still in there multiplying like crazy; and then there are brief periods when I need to rest a lot and even sometimes have to rely on a wheelchair or walker. (Most of the time, I use a cane, just to help with some balance problems that stem from low blood pressure.)

One of the great things about working with Joe in his position as Faculty Fellow In Residence is that we can do a great deal of work right here in the 3rd North complex -- in meeting rooms, performance spaces, and even in our apartment. I love working with Joe, and getting a chance to know so many of our fellow 3rd North residents is a treat I never expected at this point in my life. How many 39-year-olds get to hang out with bright young men and women young enough to be his children (Joe likes to remind me of that!), learning about what they're interested in and concerned about and motivated by?

Every morning that I wake up, I'm thrilled to be awake "anywhere" -- but in this short period already that we've lived at Third North, I'm also very happy to be right here, becoming a part of a vibrant, stimulating, creative, talented community.

NOTE:
I've chosen to be totally open about my health issues because I think it's important for people my age and younger to be aware of the threat of cancer -- at any age. Many forms, including colon cancer, can be effectively treated if caught early enough. If you have questions, please feel free to ask me. (craig@craighamrick.com.)