About Joe

'( '-' )' Bearnaked Joe

Because of his part in the gay “Bear” community and his love of the band Barenaked Ladies, Joe Tresh nicknamed himself “Bearnaked Joe” and began publishing his personal web page “Bearnaked Joe’s Web Home” in 1998 where he put up some personal stories, photo collections, essays, and political views. The site later became simply “Bearnaked Joe’s” and he began using Blogger to add new content.

Joe suffers from having too wide a range of interests, but primarily finds himself balancing things between life, love, photography, music, and work. Joe writes and links about whatever strikes his attention, mostly LGBT issues, fairness, the fight for equality and coming out, bears and cubs, sexuality, redheads, Washington, D.C., photography, sociology, politics, music, Generation X, and marijuana law reform. Joe keeps an eye on Carbon Leaf and Barenaked Ladies.

Joe has been photographing the LGBT community for 20 years. His photographs have been published in Der Spiegel, Advocate, Washington Post, Washington Blade, Out Magazine, Bay Windows, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia City Paper, Philadelphia Gay News, Bay Area Reporter, Pridesource, OUT, American Bear Magazine, and others. Joe also publishes on Washington Photo Journal with other talented photographers. 

Joe rebooted the Bearnaked Blog with a fresh WordPress installation in December of 2008. “Best of” posts from his old blog are occasionally being republished.

Joe lives about a mile from the White House with his boyfriend and their cat. Because he can often be seen photographing in DC including the DC Bear community, he has a wide range of acquaintances. He also has some friends, and a few close friends. But Joe is in reality mostly a loner longing for someone to ask him “That 70s Show” trivia.

Joe is from Ohio. He has also lived in Akron, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and Orange County, CA. Joe’s favorite hamburger is the Galley Boy, served with fried mushrooms and a vanilla Pepsi. If that isn’t available, he likes a burger with swiss, bacon, sauteed mushrooms and A-1 sauce, with onion rings on the side.

Email joe at bearnakedjoeweb at gmail dot com.