Washington Biz Journal photographer Lawton retires

Washington Business Journal editor Vandana Sinha writes about staff photographer Joanne Lawton, who has retired after nearly 30 years at the paper.

Sinha writes, “For her 28 years at the Washington Business Journal, as far more than our staff photographer, Joanne has shown everyone who’s passed through the front doors how incomparable she truly is. It’s not with a few words. It’s not with a single gesture. It’s with all of it. All of her words, all of her gestures, all of her generosities and idiosyncrasies. All of who she is, everything she brings to her every interaction with you.

“She embodies the qualities you wish you had, the ambitions you didn’t think you had and everything in between. She’s one of the sharpest people I know with a peerless fusion of people skills, human instincts and emotional intellect. Whether you’re an intern or the publisher, you have her warmth and respect, so long as you continue to earn it. She’s unafraid to tell you when you’re wrong — and, more importantly and uncommonly, when she’s wrong. But more often than not, she’s right. She’s snarky and sweet, a giant heart and a hot head. But even when she’s being a self-described pain in the ass, she’s doing it to advocate for another’s cause. She suffers neither fools nor egos. She intuitively puts others above herself and her work above her glory — especially so with the assignments that give her the most angst ahead of time. Sure, timecard apps may not be her thing, but she’s brilliant behind the lens, instantly putting rookie entrepreneurs and seasoned CEOs alike at ease. And what she’s done for the people of this newsroom and this company goes so far beyond the clicks and flashes of her Nikon.”

Read more here.