Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico – I have known and worked with Josef Kandoll for nearly 20 years for all my photography needs, both personal and professional. Headshots, website photos, work for my nonprofit, grandkids and babies, parties and events, staging and shooting my home and trips to Cabo Corrientes; he has documented so many important moments in my life.
What a gift he is to our community: talented, perceptive, and especially generous. Josef is someone who easily recognizes where and how to step in and support people. We even had the opportunity to weather February 22, 2026, together when we found ourselves stranded on the water as everything shut down. You really get to know someone when you’re functioning under stress together. Even then, there were plenty of laughs.
These photos show Josef at work on our projects.
Josef was born on a farm in Washington State and had been thinking about photography long before he received his first camera at age 12. His earliest subjects may have been any of his nine siblings or sixty-some first cousins. Or perhaps the cats and dogs that followed him as he helped bring in the cows for milking. Or maybe the river that curved around the far field, where otters played, raccoons washed their treasures, and deer moved quietly through the brush.
As a teenager, he photographed one of his favorite cousins’ weddings, and during his final two years of high school, he served as the school photographer. By the time he applied to art school at age 20, he had assembled a portfolio that reflected his travels through Africa, Europe, Asia, and much of North America.
It wasn’t until he moved to Mexico in the mid-1990s that photography became his principal profession. Since then, he has photographed for magazines, travel destinations, weddings, families, residences, and one of his favorite subjects – life in Puerto Vallarta.
He continues that work today while raising his daughter as a single father, loving life, and generously giving back to others.
Take a look at his portfolio. Just know that we’re already scheduled for another photo shoot with him this week. To see more of Josef’s work, visit weddingsbyjosef.com or his Facebook page.
Leslie Korn has lived and worked in Banderas Bay since 1973 conducting research in Traditional Medicine of Mexico. She is a Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health-educated clinician in clinical practice in Mental Health Nutrition, Integrative Medicine and the prevention of dementia and cognitive decline. She is the author of 10 books, including ‘Preventing & Treating Diabetes Naturally: The Native Way’. To learn more about her work, visit DrLeslieKorn.com. She can be reached at lekorn(at)cwis.org.