Joseph Dominic Chielli

Joseph Dominic Chielli
1948 - 2017
Joseph (Joe) Dominic Chielli died on February 5th at the age of 68, following a year long struggle with cancer. He was the first born to Joseph Anthony and Maria Carmella Chielli, while working at the Overbrook School for the Blind in Philadelphia. He grew up amid the Spanish cloistered rose gardens that surrounded the campus, a beauty and love of nature never forgotten. His family moved to Cherry Hill, NJ, when he was eight years old. He began piano lessons as a child and developed an appreciation of playing and listening to classical music which was a recurring lifelong manifestation of his attraction to great beauty. Dominic spent his summers growing up in Avalon, NJ, where his family had purchased a summer home long before commercial development changed its beaches’ more natural character.

Dominic and Joanna, his lifelong partner of 40 years, loved spending time with his family and enjoyed celebrations with good food, spirits and music. He took particular interest in his aging mother and father and provided spiritual guidance to his siblings, niece and nephews.

He graduated Dickinson College in Pennsylvania with a Bachelor’s of Science degree. He earned an ESOL master’s degree from Temple University. Until he fully embraced his essence as an artist, his talent as a teacher took many forms including teaching English to the resettled Asian war immigrants of the 1970s, international ESOL college classes and PTC career counseling programs. His counseling work at the Antonelli Institute of Art and Photography lead to his professional training as a photographer.

Dominic’s visual arts talents blossomed with his switch into a photography career, founding Church Street Studios in 1989 as Joe Chielli. His studio is one of few Philadelphia commercial photography studios that survived all the radical technology changes affecting that field. The decades of studio longevity were based on his evolving vision of possibilities, including being an early pioneer in combining graphic and website design, and then ultimately videography, with commercial photography services. In association with the diverse talents of Kristine diGrigoli, whom he mentored for the last several years, Church Street Studio sustains a top presence in Philadelphia.

Dominic also established one of the first on-line actor/model talent directories in 2002, PhillyFaces.com, which uniquely gave aspiring actors and models the option for affordable self-promotion on the internet. He invented on-line video resumes for talent. Recognizing this innovation, The New York Times published an article about the new "talking head" video promotions by Church Street Studios on the front page of the Theater Section. PhillyFaces.com spawned other internet talent promotion businesses around the region.

Dominic and his wife Joanna were among the cofounders of Summa Foundation for Mindful Living in 1985, for adult self-development studies. To this day, Summa Foundation combines practical daily mindfulness application of "Fourth Way" methods with the calm depths of Zen Buddhist inspired meditation. This mindful attention training continues to evolve, with mutually supportive group format and inclusion of diverse active meditation forms, having influenced the lives of many students through the years.

A celebration of his photographic career as Joe Chielli is planned for April at the Church Street Studios/ArtChick Photography studio in Center City Philadelphia, and a Celebration of Life Memorial service for family and friends is planned for early spring. The memorial program will include live performances of some classical piano works that Dominic learned to play by heart on his beloved Steinway, as well as a recording of him playing his own piano composition “Cacophony Street Suite.” This self-taught composition grew out of his existential explorations after college graduation during the shifting societal possibilities of the 1970s.

Dominic is survived by his wife; his mother, Maria, of Cherry Hill, and three siblings, Jessica, of Wrightstown; James, of Cherry Hill; and Jack, of Wilkes-Barre.

For those wishing to make a gesture of loving appreciation, the family requests in lieu of flowers, a donation to the Summa Foundation for Mindful Living at www.SummaFoundation.org (see donation link). Summa Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, and a continuing part of Dominic’s life work.

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