At 18, in the spring of 1974, I went to a photography seminar sponsored by the Friends of Photography, in Carmel, CA. There were lectures by Ansel Adams, Wynn Bullock, Bret Weston, Cole Weston, and Minor White, to name a few. My portfolio review session with Ralph Gibson and Arthur Taussig were pivotal to my career. Their insights helped me find my visual voice. San Francisco State University(SFSU) was perfect for me. It gave me every opportunity to develop artistically, academically, professionally and personally. At SFSU, Neal White, Don Worth, Ralph Putzker, Catherine Wagner, John Collier and especially Jack Welpott had great influences on my photographic approach and philosophy.
Art photography is a visual and when most successful, an emotional medium. Shot with a large format camera, most of my unmanipulated photographic images are quiet, still, sometimes stark. The photographs are very deliberate. I will look at a possible photograph for months. I am always looking for images. I look for the essence of what most would consider mundane and give it a visual perspective.
My current work starts there and through the magic of Photoshop, reveals a place for emotion, for meditation that the original image keeps hidden in its claim to existence in the real world. I began innocently trying to capture what I saw and to my surprise, produced what the camera saw. Now I capture what can only be felt, not just visually but emotionally, maybe even spiritually as well. The journey continues.