Joe Watson’s passion for new exploration of the very old has transported him to photograph, fly, dive, sail, study and write on five of the seven continents.

With a fundamental belief that it is not possible to understand the present without a clear notion of the past, even the pre-historic past, his explorations have taken him to Paleolithic and Neolithic places like Sardinia, Petro, and East Asia.

Exploring the Bronze age souqs of Fez and Marrakesh to see what has not changed, or the millenniums old Iron Age drainage systems below old city Jerusalem to see what still works are part of an ongoing study to connect past with present.

Long term exploration of the Roman and Ottoman empires including a study of construction methods of Hagia Sophia and the conquest of Mehmed II has given way to a permanent commitment to the Indian sub-continent.

The Sadhu holy men and Indian religious centers of Varanasi, Rishikesh, and Haridwar on the holy river  Ganges are part of a continuing religious practices study while along the way dealing with severely disabled Tibetan children. “Regular expeditions to Nepal take my Dooley Intermed colleagues to Kathmandu and little known remote Himalayan villages on eye-surgery-expeditions. There, we at Dooley Intermed, also established and support an exemplary orphanage, build small-hospitals and clinics, and find innovative new medical outreach programs to otherwise unserved mountain villagers.

Joe Watson developed a water-buffalo milk for children program in Nepal and thus he is know there as “Buffalo Joe” or as the kids sometimes call him, “Uncle Buffalo.”

As well as  photographer and explorer, Joe Watson is a Texas real estate developer, an off-shore sailor racing from the Texas Gulf to Palma de Mallorca, and Porto Cervo in the Med; a competitive aerobatic pilot, five-decade diver (Watsons are a dive family starting at age 10), and his most important claim, a devoted grandfather of two terrific boys; “let’s do it for the grandkids!”