Photograpic Beginnings
I bought a 35 dollar Yashika camera to be a high school wannnabe journalist. My ticket to both explore and be nosey. That journalistic step emboldened me to join the college campus newspaper. While pursuing a degree, rivalries existed twixt Journalism and Architecture photo students. Turned out this rivalry sharpened all comers. Our studies dived into photo processes, examined luminaries, trends, and aesthetics.
Pursuing Photography
College graduation led me to the Art Institute of Chicago. In the 1970’s, artistic philosophies were constantly challenged. Gritty street-wise author Studs Terkel collides his ethos with hyper realist artist Chuck Close. A move to New Mexico became a graduate project. This graduating thesis was mentored by New Mexico photo historian Dr. Richard Rudisill. This project led to a book- The Persistence of Memory, New Mexico’s Churches. This book depicts the flourishing Catholic culture. This heritage still displayed through architecture, faith manifestations, and generation to generation traditions.
Photo Career
Several grants bought film and materials, but did not pay the daily bills. So I began my second education in taking a job with Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. This job was in the field of industrial photography and enabled several working book projects. One was Cerro Grande Canyons of Fire, Spirit of Community, a book documenting the devastating 2000 wildfire ripping through Los Alamos; the beginning of todays fire-storm era. Another; Science in the National Interest, essentially a pictorial book illustrating the complex history of the Los Alamos Laboratory dating to the Manhattan Project.
The Here and Now
I pursue light, nature, culture, and documenting layers of our complex world. Images are memories of feelings from living life —-so … just adding a few more brushstrokes…