I learned to print before I learned to operate a camera. Watching the technical process of the exposure, and then the magic emergence of an image from the blank paper, rang a loud bell that still echoes. My formal education is in languages, diplomacy, and law and I use words to resolve conflicts among governments, companies and people. I use photography both as a conscious chronicle and as a vehicle for subconscious themes that are revealed if I pay enough attention. I’m curious about the interplay of physics and art and the tensions between them.
I photograph landscape, still life, people and abstracts, but regardless of subject matter, the images are also contemplations on the coexistence of elements in opposition. My work has appeared in a variety of galleries, magazines and books, and received awards in juried photo competitions.
About My Work:
My photographs are ruminations on managing opposing states. In the largest sense, this an attempt to explore the dance between science and art. Other broad forces (e.g., chaos and order) seek to change one another—which one wins? A photograph literally freezes time and space, but does this represent a victory of stillness over motion, or does it beg the question of where we should go? To me, the same unstable alliance is present between light and dark, between the fleeting and the permanent.
I contemplate horizons and changing weather to pause in wonder and transition to what may be next. Geology has a different scale of size and time, and humans sometimes accept the stoicism of rock and stone by adapting to them, but other times mine the material and accelerate erosion. Flowers, cut and arranged, have begun a journey from bloom to demise that I interrupt for a beautiful moment. Geometry is both an objective description of observed patterns and a way to organize what we see—do I just find geometry or compose with it to compete against subliminal anarchy? People live daily, leaving evidence of harmony or disruption and finding pathways amidst these conflicts.
In the end, my photography is a form of conceptual diplomacy.
While I enjoy presenting my work as projected images on line, the physical print is where I see colors come alive and shadows present their mystery. I print using archival color and platinum/palladium monochrome processes to leave behind more permanent traces.
My credits include:
Gallery Exhibitions::
SF Black & White Gallery, San Francisco
San Francisco City Hall
START/Soma Gallery, San Francisco
Hotel des Arts, San Francisco
CityArt Gallery, San Francisco
ArtistXchange Gallery, San Francisco
SomArts Gallery, San Francisco (2009)
Picturish Gallery, Berkeley, CA (2011)
Grotteschi | Exploring Hieronymus Bosch, Carmel Visual Arts Center (2015)
PhotoPlace Gallery: Stories and Secrets, image selected in juried competition by jurors Kirsten Hoving and Emma Powell (2015)
INPrint Group Show, Photo Methode Gallery, Austin TX (2017)
Black and White 2022, Black Box Gallery, Portland, OR (February 2022)
The Magic of Light, PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT, selected by juror Ann Jastrab, for Online Exhibition (March 2022)
Monochrome 2022, PH21 Gallery, Budapest, Hungary (May 2022)
Publications:
7x7 Magazine, November 2003, as the overall winner of the Bring on the Night photo competition.
Published in the Best of Photography Annual 2006 (December 2006)
Published in the Best of Photography Annual 2007 (December 2007)
Published in the Best of Photography Annual 2014 (December 2014)
Published in the Best of Photography Annual 2016 (December 2016)
Published in the Best of Photography Annual 2017 (December 2017)
Published in the Best of Photography Annual 2018 (December 2018)
Awards:
2005 International Photography Awards competition, Los Angeles, CA, 3 Honorable Mention Awards, in the categories of fine art nude (twice) and portrait.
2006 International Photography Awards competition, Los Angeles, CA, 6 Honorable Mention Awards, in the categories of abstract, interiors, still life, self-portrait, and portrait (twice).
2008 Prix de la Photographie Paris, 3 Honorable Mentions in the Fine Art category, non-professional
2008 International Photography Awards competition, Los Angeles, CA, 1 Honorable Mention Award, in the category of Travel/Tourism.
2011, Prix de la Photographie Paris, 1 Honorable Mention Award, and several Official Selections, in the Fine Art category, non-professional
2015 International Color Awards: 3rd Place - Honor of Distinction in Still Life | Precarious and Nominee in Still Life | Purples
2015 Prix de Photographie PX3 Honorable Mention in Nature/Sky and Travel Categories.
2015 International Photography Awards 6 Honorable Mentions in Fine Art Nudes and 1 Honorable Mention in Still Life
2015 Black & White Spider Awards Nominee in Fine Art
2016 INPrint juried competition, named Honorable Mention by juror Catherine Couturier of the Catherine Couturier Gallery
2016 International Color Awards: Nominee in Silhouette | Silhouette on Mt Etna
2016 International Photography Awards, Los Angeles, CA, Honorable Mentions in Nature (Sunset), Fine Art (Landscape) and Fine Art (Other) categories
2016 Prix de Photographie PX3 Honorable Mention in Fine Art Nude Category
2016 Black & White Spider Awards Honorable Mention Nude, and Nominee in Nude, Nature and Architectural Categories
2017 Black & White Spider Awards Honorable Mention Nude, and Nominee Abstract Categories
2018 International Color Awards, 3rd Place Honor of Distinction, Nude, and 2 Nominations, in Nature and Abstract Categories
2018 Black & White Spider Awards, 1st Place Abstract Category
2019 International Color Awards, Nomination, Nude, Disruptive I
2021 Black & White Spider Awards, 3 Nominee Awards, one each in Fine Art, Architectural and Aerial Categories
2021 PX3 Prix de la Photographie PX3, 2 Honorable Mentions in Press/Travel/Tourism, Professional Category
2021 International Color Awards, 2 Nominations, one each in Nature and Architecture Categories
2022 International Color Awards, 1 Nomination in Nature Category
2022 Black & White Spider Awards, 1 Nominee Award in Photojournalism Category
2023 Black & White Spider Awards, 3 Nominee Awards in Nature, Still Life, and People Categories
2024 International Color Awards, 1 Nomination in Architecture, 2 Nominations in Fine Art and 1 Nomination in Still Life Categories
