Joe “Fotojo” Schofield fell in love with travel when he rode “shotgun” on family trips across iconic Route 66 from the Midwest to California in the late 1950s and 1960s. He never tired of watching the topography change in front of his eyes.

After starting a career in sales, he quickly decided that becoming a sales representative for a company covering several states would allow him to maintain his income while feeding his need to travel and see the country.

In the mid-1990s, he decided to turn his lifelong passion for photography into a full-time business. He spent his time building that business by photographing youth sports and convention events in the Orlando, Florida area. While shooting swimming events for his daughter’s swim team, the kids started calling him “Photo Joe.” With a little tweak in the spelling, Fotojo was officially born.

Still, the travel itch was there. A lifelong dream was to publish a book with pictures and stories from around the country. The problem was how to finance the time on the road collecting the thousands of pictures necessary to fill a 150+ page book.

In 2000, he obtained a commercial driver’s license and began collecting pictures and writing stories about the beauty of America. In 2006, On The Road With Fotojo was published and became available on Amazon, along with his other travel-related publications.

After publishing the book, Fotojo stayed on the road building a huge portfolio of places he photographed. His work is now available as wall art and other products through Fine Art America.

In 2017, following a trip to Japan and China, Fotojo realized the value of travel professionals and became an agent for Archer Travel, a 70+ year-old company in Southern California. He now helps people check off places that are on their bucket lists and saves them money. Sometimes he participates in group trips, offering his travel and photography tips under his “Travel With Fotojo” umbrella.