.jpg)
Technically, I'm a photographer but, no, I do not do weddings and I won't photograph your kids... though I might be convinced to photograph your dog, would definitely photograph your dog's wedding! I am an artist that uses photography as my medium.
In 1992, I received a Bachelors of Fine Art in Photography with a minor in Printmaking from Shepherd College, now Shepherd University, in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. My training was in all things traditional – film, darkroom and alternative (19th century) processes. Things I still, to this day, hold dear and try always to honor in my work.
My work is old school colliding with new school. Until recently, I shot exclusively color print photographic film, combining it with modern digital processes, using high end film scanners, post-production software and digital pigment ink printing. I began digital capture in 2018 using fast antique lenses on a modern camera body, but there is still film waiting patiently for me in the fridge.
I was juried into the Torpedo Factory Artists Association in 2006 where I can be found in Studio 309, for now. In addition to fine art pursuits, I also work with many other photographers to help them bring their images and exhibitions to life with high quality scanning, retouching, printing, instruction and consultation. In 2018, I became very involve with the TFAA's Mosaic location in Merrifield, Virginia, seeing that there is a great need for the organization the thrive outside the art center. The Alexandria City's government takeover of our beloved art center has left it in shambles. I joined the TFAA board as Membership chair in 2020. This has been frustrating, challenging and rewarding.
I began making photographs as a child; exploring, learning and becoming aware through photography. For me, photographs, and the act of making them, are glimpses of timeless Spirits and of the pure and unbiased realities of nature. The eye of the camera, unlike eye of the viewer does not look at life subjectively, no judgment is passed, no value placed, no claim staked. In that it is the most like the Mind’s eye. When I photograph I try to detach. I don’t question the attraction I have to a subject - it’s an attraction so it’s primal. I expose the flm and move on, not interfering, not questioning, not staking a claim. It is in the printmaking part of the process when the photographs become mine and to what I was reacting becomes clear and what is to be revealed is, if only to me. I tweak and fuss the image until the sense of light, the tones and textures elicit familiar feelings, primal attractions, a sense of Spirit of place. And I delight in that something that is unanticipated, that something that I thought could not be seen. In making the photographs mine they become my teachers. And they impart an orderly quietness of symmetry in which Spirit reveals itself. Although a long and loyal maven of the traditional wet darkroom, the new technological advancements in photography and digital printing offer me a way of rendering to paper what I see as the inherent beauty of photographic film. My photographs are made on film, scanned.into the computer and then interpreted using the timeless sensibilities of the traditional fine art photographic printmaker.
In 1992, I received a Bachelors of Fine Art in photography from Shepherd College in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. I was juried into the renowned Torpedo Factory Artists Association in Alexandria, Virginia in 2006 where I can be found in Studio 309, for now.
In addition to fine art pursuits, I also work with other photographers to bring their images into the digital realm with high quality scanning, retouching, printing, instruction and consultation.
Please fill out the form below to request an art commission proposal.
