Joe Oppedisano was born in Calabria, in Gioiosa Ionica. At the age of eight he moved with his family to New York where he studied photography at Queens College and the School of Visual Arts. In 1974 he began working as an assistant with Ryszard Horowitz and Tony Petrucelli. In 1976 he made a reportage in Friuli for the Philadelphia Herald on the living conditions of earthquake victims.

In 1979 he took part in the Venice 79 photography exhibition which took place in the lagoon city and followed several workshops. In 1982 he moved permanently to Milan where he collaborated with the American magazine Attention and opened an advertising photography studio. He worked with important advertising agencies and took photographs for Adidas, Yomo, Pionier, Hitachi, Panasonic, Grundig, Kodak, Apple, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Campari, RAS American Express. In 1986 he won the Aart director's Club award for the Pioneer campaign. Oppedisano continued to work in advertising until 2008.

He simultaneously devotes himself to research and experimentation in portraiture, landscape and nude. His research often uses 35 mm cameras specially modified to produce fused frames that he calls “extensions”.