About

My work is very much influenced by the new topographic movement in that I am most interested in the human-altered landscape. Some might find this banal but I like to find the beauty in the banal. I photograph the world around me in vignettes that speak to me emotionally. Much of my work is composed of scenes close to my home that I pass often and that catch my eye. If this happens often enough the scene will become a photograph. I like to look at the familiar and present it in a new way. I work with both digital and film. I like to use a 4X5 film camera and black and white film because it is a slow and contemplative process. In the time of Instagram and instant gratification that digital gives us I find the slow process of film to be similar to composing a poem. A process that take time and thought. I try to find the extraordinary in the ordinary.

I find the West to be endlessly interesting in that one has a sense of history that is still not past. My mind seems to expand along with the horizon. Perhaps growing up in the crowded Northeast the big sky of the West is still fresh and somewhat exotic. I am not drawn to the grand landscapes of Ansel Adams rather I prefer land that is worked and re worked with a patina of use. These places tell the stories of the lives lived. Beauty is all around us if we drop our preconceived of what nature is and what is important. I can find as much beauty in a an old tumbledown ranch as in an alpine meadow. Certainly more poetry.