Joe Aker is an internationally recognized architectural photographer and artist. He has lived and worked in Houston since 1976, starting his own architectural photography company in 1978. He has photographed projects for architects and developers such as Hines, Transwestern, Hines, DMJM, Rottet Studio, Cesar Pelli, Robert Stern, HOK, Gensler, Kirksey, Picard Chilton, SOM, HKS, PGAL and Duda Paine. He was recognized as Artist of the Year by the Houston AIA chapter in 2007. Joe also opened one of the major photographic labs in the Houston area in many years ago. Closely connected with the arts community in Houston thought his work, and as an artist himself, he has also been a mentor to emerging and mid-career artists for over 20 years.
In 2007, Joe began to exhibit his own fine art work in galleries and museums. His work is now in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and many corporate and private collections including Methodist Hospital, HEB, J. P. Morgan Chase Bank, Crown Castle, University of Texas University Lands, and Sam Houston State University, North Texas University Denton, the George R. Brown Convention Center Houston, Dow Chemical, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) Real Estate, Transwestern and Hines. Widely collected, Joe Aker has had solo shows at the Deborah Colton Gallery in Houston, the Buchanan Gallery in Galveston and the Frank Picture Gallery in Santa Monica, California.