Joseph Papin specialized in reportorial art – on-the-scene drawing – the artist as reporter. He illustrated Washington, covering legislation in the House and Senate, and all the activities of a Presidential inauguration. He covered most of the major U.S. trials for over two decades, the Watergate hearings, the United Nations, and a spectrum of events, large and small.
A freelance artist since 1957, Joe Papin’s work appeared in USIA’s American Illustrated, Harper’s, Newsweek, Business Week, The Reporter, American Heritage, Forbes, Playboy, The National Review and a host of specialty magazines. Among newspapers he contributed to The Herald Tribune, The New York Times, and worked on staff at The New York Daily News, where his reportorial drawings depicted the major trials for over twenty years. He illustrated over forty-five adult and children’s books, lectured at colleges and for professional societies, gave many demonstrations, and had numerous shows, including one that traveled the U.S. for over two years. He was the recipient of seven Page One Awards for Graphic Excellence in Journalism and the New York Press Club Art Award for Reportorial Art/Courtrooms: Outstanding Artist of the Year.
Joe Papin started as an artist working his way through Ohio State University; made training films for the Army Signal Corps; and represented himself as a freelance artist for thirteen years. In 1969, he was invited to join the Daily News and worked to develop, enlarge, and reassert the place of the documentary artist in news coverage. For example, along with over 125 journalists and cameramen, he covered the Hearst trial in San Francisco.
Joe Papin’s work encompassed the areas usually covered by photographers. He drew U.N. scenes, military and international subjects, concerts, parades, horse races, hospital emergency rooms and thousands of street scenes. His first love and compelling interest was drawing on-the-scene, where history happens.
His career was cut short in 1992 due to his untimely death from melanoma. In 2015, his wife, Jane Papin, donated the extensive collection of his courtroom art work to the Library of Congress, over 4,750 drawings, as the Library of Congress has been developing a focus and interest in courtroom art. The contribution to the Library of Congress was made so that subsequent generations would have access to his work and the events that he documented. Jane Papin donated a comparable number of his NYC drawings to Columbia University in 2019.
Joe Papin drew voraciously, sketched everywhere he went, and shared his love of reportorial art with everyone he met. At the beginning of his career as a free-lance artist in the later half of the 1950s, he wandered the Bowery, drawing and recording the stories of the street people he met there. He also worked with the East Harlem Protestant Parish, illustrating their work with the community and with the gangs in the area, and taught art classes to the youth.