Joe Craig's Soulmarks

Home
United States
Dexter, MO
Joe Craig's Soulmarks

Founded by portrait artist Joe Craig in Dexter, Missouri. Three studio brands. One foundation. An unwavering belief that every person deserves to be seen.

soulmarks.com
To Participate in the Farm Project - use this link
https://forms.gle/V5qf8aWED18MVVcw7 Since 1972, Joe Craig has established himself as an internationally acclaimed photographer. He has spent 40 years perfecting his life’s work, an artistic and soulful approach to portraiture called Soulmarks, and teaching this philosophy to others. Joe’s instinctive talent and magnetic charisma keep him in high demand as both a photographic consultant and lecturer around the globe. In addition to the Joe Craig Luxury Group (JCLG), a line of portrait studios exclusively available on luxury cruise lines and at destination resorts, Joe Craig reserves time to shoot a limited amount of private sessions and to present lectures worldwide. Every artist who photographs in a JCLG licensed studio trains personally with Joe Craig at the Soulmarks Art Center, which has been home to the Soulmarks experience for 40 years. Artists travel from all over the world to Dexter, Missouri, where they undergo intensive training to learn specialized photography skills and become deeply immersed in the unique Soulmarks approach. After completing their training, artists are able to produce stunning portraits that capture the essence of every person who comes before the lens. He also dedicates time to the Soulmarks Foundation, which works to gift portrait sessions to those who could not otherwise afford the experience and could most benefit. Please contact us to learn more about booking a private session or contributing to the Soulmarks Foundation mission.

10/24/2026

The Farm Project is coming to Springfield.

Internationally acclaimed portrait artist Joe Craig is travelling to Greene County on Wednesday, November 11th — and he is bringing the Farm Project with him. If your family farms, or if you have served, Joe Craig would like to make your portrait.

Each family receives one fine art print at no cost. This is Joe Craig’s gift to the veterans and farming families of Greene County — a permanent record of the people who built this community and the legacy they carry.

Sittings are by appointment and space is limited. The event is hosted at Jenni Hargis Law, 406 W Walnut St, downtown Springfield.

To reserve your sitting, email [email protected] or text 573-383-8410.

The archive is growing. Greene County deserves to be in it.

📍 Springfield, Missouri — Greene County
🏷️ Tag a farming family or a veteran who should be seen.

10/21/2026

The pasture where Lennon and Jack Guethle run their cattle was Marmie and Pawpaw’s pumpkin patch.

That same piece of Stoddard County ground was part of Raymond and Martha Guethle’s dairy farm. Then it was worked by their son Harlan, and by Harlan’s brothers Francis and Carl through FCH Guethle Farms. When Aaron Guethle decided it was time to bring the next generation onto the family land, his son Lennon was nine years old. Jack was eleven. Together with their friend Tommy Louder — whose own dad Kevin grew up driving tractors and laying irrigation pipe on this same farm — the boys cleaned out the old hay barn, fenced off the orchard using Aaron’s cotton equipment, and started Guethle Boys Cattle Company.

They joined the Puxico Warriors 4-H Club. They showed steers at the Stoddard County and SEMO District fairs. They built a registered Angus and Hereford herd. And they did it on the same land their great-grandparents broke in generations before them.

Now their little sisters — Lilly Guethle and Quinn Louder — are watching, and they want in too.

Joe Craig made this portrait as part of the Farm Project — a fine art archive of Stoddard County’s farming families. Lennon and Jack are the youngest participants in the Farm Project so far. Joe Craig’s work names the people who carry this ground forward, generation by generation, and puts them in the permanent record.

The legacy of FCH Guethle Farms did not stop with Raymond and Martha. It just got younger.

If your family farms Stoddard County ground, Joe Craig would like to make your portrait. Sittings are at no cost to your family. Reserve your place in the archive here: https://forms.gle/LLQvqQvKuVsPjnLB6

📍 Stoddard County, Missouri
🏷️ Tag the Guethle family if you know them.

10/19/2026

FRANCIS GUETHLE - STODDARD COUNTY

Francis Xavier Guethle milked cows before school and after school. His family ran about 50 dairy cows and farmed around 300 acres in Stoddard County — and like most farm boys in the fifties and sixties, Francis worked.

Then he went to the Army and was stationed in Berlin, Germany. Then he came back, graduated from Arkansas State University with a degree in Agriculture, and went straight back to the Bootheel. He and his brothers Harlan and Carl formed the F.C.H. Guethle Partnership — dairy and row crops. Around 1989-90 they sold the dairy and turned their full attention to wheat, corn, beans, and rice.

Francis married Janet Garner from Dexter in 1984. They raise Golden Retrievers — dogs they’ve taken to shows and competitions across the region. For years their dogs Pete and Claudia have been visiting schoolchildren at Southwest and Central schools in Dexter, known and loved by a generation of kids in Stoddard County.

Today you can find Francis taking Claudia to Central, or out hunting.

Joe Craig photographed Francis at the House of Soulmarks in Dexter. That portrait is now part of the Farm Project’s permanent archive, made by Joe Craig’s own hand — a legacy that places Francis in the record of the farming families who built this region.

If your family has worked the land in Stoddard County — for one generation or five — the Farm Project is for you. There is no cost to your family. Apply here: https://forms.gle/LLQvqQvKuVsPjnLB6

Tag a farming family below.

10/17/2026

CARL GUETHLE - STODDARD COUNTY

Carl Joseph Guethle carries his middle name from his grandfather — Joseph Guettle, who married Pauline Melcher in Ste. Genevieve and decided he wanted to farm flat land. Joseph talked to his cousin Ben Meyer in Benton, packed up his family, and came to Dexter. Carl’s father Raymond was two and a half years old when they made the move.

Three generations later, Carl is still here.

While his brothers Harlan and Francis were away — teaching, in the Army, at university — Carl was the one who kept the farm running. He worked alongside his parents through the dairy years and the row crop years, keeping the demanding everyday work going smoothly. When the brothers came back and formed the F.C.H. Guethle Partnership, Carl was already deep in it. After they established the partnership they sold the dairy and focused on row crops.

Today you can find Carl mowing the pond, bush hogging, or hunting. His nieces and nephews love coming to visit — and getting into his candy.

Joe Craig photographed Carl at the House of Soulmarks in Dexter. That portrait now belongs to the Farm Project’s permanent archive, made by Joe Craig’s own hand. It is the legacy of a family that came from Ste. Genevieve to Stoddard County three generations ago and never left.

If your family has worked the land in Stoddard County — for one generation or five — the Farm Project is for you. There is no cost to your family. Apply here: https://forms.gle/LLQvqQvKuVsPjnLB6

Tag a farming family below.

10/15/2026

Ralph Mouser: The End of an Era

We've said goodbye to Ralph Mouser — one of our county’s true icons.

Some people become so deeply woven into a place that it is hard to imagine that place without them. Ralph was one of those people. His steady spirit and his true grit became part of our community’s history.

Today, we mourn Ralph and honor the life he shared.

We have witnessed the end of an era.

Rest in peace, Ralph. You will be deeply missed and long remembered.

SOULMARKS FOUNDATION — The Farm Project

10/14/2026

HARLAN GUETHLE - STODDARD COUNTY

Harlan Eugene Guethle has never fully left the farm — not even when he was teaching.

As a boy in Stoddard County, he milked cows, fed baby calves, chopped weeds, and drove tractors. He went to SEMO University, studied Industrial Arts, spent a stretch at Federal Mogul, then became a teacher — first at Northwest High School, then at Richland. But while he was teaching at Essex, he was farming too. After school, on weekends, whenever the land needed him.

When he quit teaching, he and his brother Carl and their father formalised what had always been true: they were farming partners. When Francis came home from the Army and graduated from Arkansas State, the three brothers made it official — the F.C.H. Guethle Partnership, Stoddard County.

Harlan married Brenda Thompson in 1977. They have three children — Michael, Sara, and Aaron “Vern” — and eight grandchildren. Today you can find him on the farm helping Aaron with the ground work, or at the grandchildren’s activities.

Joe Craig photographed Harlan at the House of Soulmarks in Dexter. That portrait now belongs to the Farm Project’s permanent archive, made by Joe Craig’s own hand. It is the legacy of a man who never walked away from the ground — not even when his day job was teaching someone else’s children.

If your family has worked the land in Stoddard County — for one generation or five — the Farm Project is for you. There is no cost to your family.

Apply here: https://forms.gle/LLQvqQvKuVsPjnLB6

Tag a farming family below.

10/08/2026

Wendell Minson began his agricultural life in 1968 on a small livestock farm in Bollinger County. "His first animal was an orphan baby pig." That pig became a sow and feeder pig operation. The feeder pigs gave way to cattle. By the time Wendell left for the University of Missouri in Columbia to study Agricultural Education, the shape of his life's work was already set.

He graduated in 1979 and came to Dexter, spending four years teaching VO-Ag and FFA at Dexter High School — shaping the next generation before stepping into a seventeen-year career with BASF. Then in 2000, he went out on his own, founding Bootheel Crop Consultants, working directly alongside growers on corn, wheat, soybeans, and rice.

Both sons followed him in. Matt Stone and David Stone each earned Agri-business degrees from Mizzou. Matt has spent twenty-five years with Helena Agri-Business, rising from sales to branch manager. David has built his career representing DEKALB Corn, Asgrow Soybeans, and Deltapine Cotton through Bayer Crop Science.

Three men. Three careers. One family shaped by agriculture from the ground up — from an orphan pig in Bollinger County to a consulting operation in the heart of the Bootheel.

"God has blessed our family with great family, great friends, and great customers every step of our Agricultural experiences."

Joe Craig photographed Wendell, Matt, and David at the House of Soulmarks in Dexter. That portrait now belongs to the Farm Project's permanent archive, made by Joe Craig's own hand. It is the legacy of a family that has spent decades keeping Missouri's farming operations running — not from behind a desk, but in the field, alongside the growers.

If your family has worked in agriculture in Southeast Missouri — for one generation or five — the Farm Project is for you. There is no cost to your

Apply here: https://forms.gle/LLQvqQvKuVsPjnLB6

Tag a farming family below.

09/29/2026

Farming families of Dunklin County — Joe Craig is coming to Kennett.

For two days in November, internationally acclaimed portraitist Joe Craig is bringing the Farm Project to the heart of the Bootheel. Every sitting is set aside for the families and people who have worked this ground — those who own the land, those who keep it running, and everyone whose life has been shaped by agriculture in this region.

It doesn't matter whether you farm a thousand acres or work alongside the people who do. If agriculture is part of your story, your portrait belongs in this record.
Joe Craig photographs each family himself, in black and white, the way a thing is made when it's meant to outlast the season. Your portrait enters the permanent Farm Project archive, travels with the exhibition across Missouri, and then comes home to you as a legacy handed down long after.

There is no cost to your family. What is asked is only that you show up, and let yourselves be seen.

Sittings are by appointment and the number over the two days is limited.

Thursday 13 November and Friday 14 November� - Kennett, Missouri

Put your family's name forward here: https://forms.gle/LLQvqQvKuVsPjnLB6 or Text 573 383 8410

If you know a farming family or anyone connected to agriculture in Dunklin County who belongs in this record — share this post with them. This is their invitation.

09/26/2026

Lucas Eddington + Mingo, Stoddard County

Lucas grew up at the edge of farming without being a farmer. His family supplied lubricants and fuel to local producers, which placed him, from a young age, right on the doorstep of farm operations.

"From a young age, I was captivated by the sheer grit, passion, and commitment required to keep an agricultural business running," he says. "Seeing the daily challenges farmers face firsthand instilled in me a deep, lasting respect for the people who feed and fuel our communities."

That respect shaped the career he built. Today Lucas works as a real estate broker alongside producers, helping them acquire, expand, and structure their land holdings. He doesn't see those transactions as paperwork. To him, they are "foundational steps in building and preserving agricultural legacies."

Joe Craig photographed Lucas — and his dog — at the House of Soulmarks in Dexter. That portrait now belongs to the Farm Project's permanent archive, made by Joe Craig's own hand. A record not only of those who work the ground, but of the people who have built their lives around making sure farming families can keep it.

If your family has worked the land in [COUNTY — please confirm] — for one generation or five — the Farm Project is for you. There is no cost to your family.

Apply here: https://forms.gle/LLQvqQvKuVsPjnLB6

Tag a farming family below.

Address

444 N Walnut Street
Dexter, MO
63841

Website

http://www.soulmarks.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Joe Craig's Soulmarks posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Joe Craig's Soulmarks:

Name:

Email:

Message:

Want your business to be the top-listed photography service in Dexter?