How long have you been creating?

I took my first photo class in high school so that's when I started taking pictures, but I learned to play the guitar when I was 11. When I was going to college I took some photo classes with a good instructor and got some images that excited me and made me realize I could do something with a camera. That was around 1982. For about 10 years until 1998 I wasn't doing photography, but I was playing bass in a number of bands so the creating has been going on for quite awhile.

What other artists or movements inform your work/aesthetics/sensibilities?

Dorothea Lange, for her images and her fearlessness to go where ever the image took her. Robert Bourdeau, for his ability to make abandoned factories beautiful. Diane Arbus, for her images and her absolute fearlessness in getting the image she wanted. Daido Moriyama, for his very stark images. Ken Vandermark, for helping me better open my ears/eyes to abstraction. Don Voisine, for his paintings that got me to think more thoroughly about abstraction and subtlety. Tim Kerr, for his undying committment to his work and his ideals and for smiling through it all.

My education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago was very influential on my photography. I also learned a great deal about the history of many art forms, movements and artists and that has been very beneficial.

How would you describe your work?

To me it is abstract, it is about composition, line, light and texture. It is not really about the water or the ice or the cement you see in the picture. Even images that are obviously about something, I tend to pay more attnetion to the components (light, texture, line etc.) of the photo more than the actual subject.

I do feel a struggle in my work between my wanting to make beautiful images that have great detail and tone, and my love of photos that have poor technical quality but are arresting images. Using a Holga camera, which is an inexpensive plastic camera, helps balance those two influences.

What are you motivations for creating?

Because I love to do it. I lose myself when I'm out photographing or in the darkroom or at the computer working on an image.

I do it to make images that I really like. It's very hard to be completely satisfied with a photograph--it's an ongoing struggle. So there's the drive to create an image that I'm truly happy with.

I'm also driven by the search for the image--going out and looking for things to photograph--the exploration. I love to get in a desolate place that seems to have possibilities and start looking and shooting. It's fun when I'm in an abandoned building, for example, taking pictures seeing all the strange and interesting things and appreciating them. I don't really take the pictures in these places to document them, it's just the environment I like to be in to photograph. My creative energy is stronger when I'm in this type of place.

What do you find visually stimulating right now?

Texture, abstractions, light, ice, water, rust and the natural surroundings here in the Catskill Mountains.

Any tips for aspiring photographers from your darkroom experiences?

Experiment! There are no rules on how a photo has to look or how it is made. It's probably a good idea to learn and develop a strong foundation of skills to work from. Don't be afraid to make mistakes.

Also, investigate printing your photos using an ink jet printer, because trying to always have a darkroom to use is hard. It can be a big obstacle in continuing your growth in photography. If you don't have to worry about having a full blown darkroom for printing your photos it can really aid in your development.

The quality of ink jet prints now surpasses that of traditional darkroom prints. All you have to do is overcome the closed minds of people that don't think ink jet prints are real photographs. With the progress that is being made, in time ink jet printing will be how the majority of photographs are created. Also, on a water conservation note, you use no water when you print with an ink jet printer.

What would you like your fellow EBSQ artists and our collectors to know about you and/or your work?

I greatly appreciate the wonderful support I've received from EBSQ and those who have purchased my work and have shown appreciation for it. It's a great motivator!