Life is a journey, a continuum of everyday events and ordinary people, all of which make for an extraordinary lifetime of experiences.
The commonplaceness of the people, the situations and the objects found along the journey, become the elements that calm us, bring us comfort, and furnish a sense of connectedness.
I am an adventurer, a lover of color, culture and the bewitching. I am happiest when I’m seeking out snippets of these various pieces of life in far-off corners of the world. I am drawn to the surface beauty but the beauty within ultimately captivates and transports me. The emotional meaning of a small gesture can be indelible. Caught by the camera, it can change the world’s view of an entire culture.
The phrase ‘the human condition’ is used to describe poignant photographs of people who live in distant places. Through my photography, I have come to understand that we are all part of the human condition, wherever our sod hut, farmhouse or estate may be. My portraits and photography are ultimately about seeking out our similarities, not our differences.
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 Northern Virginia to complete my education at Georgetown University. My time at this remarkable university afforded me an opportunity to bring into question many of my basic beliefs, examine new outlooks and to grow into a fuller human being.
After working for many years in the federal government, in 1999, 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 . . . and I have never looked back!
