Why I take pictures
Many of the pictures on this site began as an elegy, a response to personal loss, and as a conversation about the ephemeral nature of our existence and the fragility of the people and things around us.
I work in black and white and I work in color. I like the freedom of digital and the discipline of film. My preferred lighting is natural. Each picture should be strong enough to stand on its own, create its own environment and tell its own story. If I'm lucky enough to make more than one picture that belong together, that will be a series, and maybe a project. I print my own images, completing the arc of the process and staying close to the pictures from beginning to end. Sometimes I will make a handsewn book of images and text to signify completion.
My first camera was my father's vintage Rolleiflex. He taught me to take pictures on it and it was stolen from me, which still breaks my heart.
My process is internal. I work from the inside out. I try to slow down, take the time to express in the picture what I might have difficulty expressing in words. I believe in patience and in being prepared.
When I’m thinking about a picture, I look for beauty and grace in the unexpected, in quiet places where spirit is easy to access, where there is light and space and movement. I want to find and create layers of interest and meaning, opening a portal to a welcoming and challenging place of self-reflection.
For a long time, I lived in an elemental place on the water, facing the north wind. It was a fierce environment and stunningly beautiful. Being so close to nature opened a place in me that led to creating pictures as a thoughtful practice. I want to get to the nature of a place or scene, to capture the breath of it as a reflection of the unexpected power of place. My pictures are also an ode to serendipity, and to what can be learned from chance encounter.
Making a picture is a way to tell a story and bring the viewer closer to me, but also to make a visual record of something that comes only once.
I’m fortunate to have sold a number of pictures into private collections and to have seen my pictures hanging on walls in exhibitions. I hope to do this more.
I keep looking.