STATEMENT

As artists we are drawn to creative projects that help us understand truths about ourselves.  When we are young, we are often lost in the process and we make choices that seem random.  Like the clearing after a winter storm, we evolve and grow and gradually achieve some clarity.  The reasons for our choices make more sense and the thrust of our journey starts to take on more meaning.

My life’s journey has been with a camera and an eye for the beauty of the landscape of a face.  From the very start, I gravitated toward photographing the human element in whatever country I was in.  The human face in the strong sunlight of the afternoon, or in the diffusion of an overcast sky, or as a profile in the morning’s gentle sunrise-- these are only three of the millions of ways to portray the face of humanity within the global environment.  Such is the passion of a portraitist.

My interest in portraiture was also configured by my fascination with the cultures of the world.  Photographing people from many different cultures in intensive reflective moments is a demanding process.  Summoning the feelings and the energy required for two strangers to connect for a moment in time—to relate long enough to place on film an image of human emotion, of joy or sadness, of defeat or defiance, of fear, or celebration-- that is the challenge... capturing the thing that happens between me and that person in one portrait.

In photography there is certainly one truth and that is that there are many many realities of the human spirit and of the imagination.  There is also light and shadow in the photograph itself, there is the human connection captured within it and there is the magic moment when it all comes together.