photographic prints should invite interpretation. whether abstract or realistic, black & white or color, each print should allow the observer to feel an emotion, a sensibility, that is instinctive and personal. we should be moved to see more than what is before our eyes.
i take pictures of what interests me. shapes, textures, angles, light, shadow… when some (or occasionally, all) of these catch my eye and emotions, that’s when I stop and take a picture. the amount of serendipity in this process can be humbling. shots that I’m certain will look good, quite often turn out to be ordinary. and shots that are taken in a haphazard, oh-what-the-heck sort of way can turn out to be gems. it’s this unknown element, this uncertainty, that keeps photography exciting for me.
i have been taking pictures for most of my life, starting when I was a boy with a kodak brownie. i graduated to a 35mm SLR after the service. i took pictures on vacation, at sporting events, pictures of nature, buildings, people on the street... whatever caught my eye. about 1998 I purchased an inexpensive medium format twin-lens- reflex (tlr) camera. the larger negatives made the prints seem much more vibrant, much more '3-d' to my eye. in 2000 I purchased a 4x5 large format camera, and things have never been the same. i relished the ritual of setting up the tripod and camera, selecting the correct lens and taking hand-held meter readings of the scene before me. the slower, more contemplative nature of large format forced me to consider each picture in depth. i made some prints. a local gallery agreed to show my work. it was a revelation.
i’m now shooting with a digital camera. but in a strange twist, i'm now printing by hand. i'm doing pop (printing- out-paper) and cyanotypes. i hope the viewer isn't concerned with how the image is captured or how the image is printed. because ultimately, it's all about the image itself.
i hope you enjoy my work... and i invite your comments.
thank you,