Artist Statement
Life is a journey, a continuum of everyday events and ordinary people, all of which make for an extraordinary lifetime of experiences.
My photography is simple and straightforward. I have a passionate interest and curiosity about people, world cultures and ideas. These are the forces that dominate my personal life and my photography. Actually I draw no distinction between my work and my personal life they are one and the same.
Paying attention to the environment and the humans who live in it, is critical for me. I allow myself to become involved with the individuals I photograph. I strive to celebrate their human spirit with dignity and respect. It matters to me.
My journey has taken me to Asia, particularly India and Myanmar. These exotic places are a long way from a dairy farm in New York State but the dairy farm was a good place to start the journey. I learned to appreciate the every day events and the emotions that make us human. Today I photograph ordinary people and ordinary situations on the other side of earth; their lives are much like the life my family lived on the dairy farm.
Through my photography, I explore the spectrum of human emotion: passion, tenderness, fear, anxiety, joy, aloofness, love, anger, etc. Many times my emotions are transmitted to the images, rather like a self-portrait. These moments can be intense, maybe disturbing and always powerful.
The commonplaceness of the people, the situations and the objects found along my journey, become the elements that evoke calm, bring comfort, and furnish a sense of connectedness for me.
A Few Words About Me
I was born on my grandfather’s dairy farm in upstate New York. My parents, Eleanor and Percy, made TV antennas for a living. The tranquility of agrarian life, the nitty-gritty of the factory environment and now, the speed and sterility of the age of technology, have each provided me with an uncommon vantage point from which to observe and record the human condition.
Curious by nature, I remain always a student. In 1981, I moved to Virginia to complete my education at Georgetown University. My time at Georgetown afforded me an opportunity to question my basic beliefs, examine new philosophies and to grow into a fuller human being.
After working for many years in the federal government, I went back to school to study interior design, art history and graphic design. In 2003, this led me to the study of photography.
From the moment I picked up a camera, I knew that I had found my creative outlet .