I am the son of a lifetime Eastman Kodak employee, growing up in Rochester, New York, and I had my first medium format camera (a “hand me down” from my father) when I was seven. Later, I worked at Kodak’s Dallas Processing Lab while I was in college, gaining an uncensored view into some of life’s most private moments as recorded on Kodachrome film. My father, the plant manager, developed the famous Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination, becoming forever linked with conspiracy theorists.
I am the president of Corrales Arts Center, past president of Corrales Bosque Gallery, and past president of the Professional Photographers Association of New Mexico. I have been the Professional Photographers Association of New Mexico Photographer of the Year twice, and I’ve been a bronze, silver, platinum and diamond medalist in PPA’s International Photographic Competition during the past eight years, including 2016 when I was one of eleven photographers worldwide to earn a diamond medal in the Master Artist Category. In 2020 I earned my Educational Associate Degree with the American Society of Photographers, an endeavor which takes years to accomplish (eleven years in my case) and is typically awarded to no more than one or two photographers per year.
Artist Statement
I was always a storyteller, from my earliest memories. Later, in college, I worked the night shift at the Eastman Kodak processing lab in Dallas and my imaginary stories and the harshness of reality collided. There at the lab I was introduced to uncensored, behind the scenes, private and secret views of life, many of which were never meant to be seen by anyone other than the maker. Seeing this range of beauty and harshness, of sadness and euphoria, had a profound effect on me. Experiencing such extreme contrasts gave me more appreciation of the beauty in life.
In my later years when I became a photographer and moved to New Mexico, it was no surprise that the beauty of the terrain made my heart soar. My artistic goal became clear: to convey the thrill and to capture what is in my heart when witnessing the wonderful landscapes and other scenes of our state and the rest of the Southwest. The spectacular landscapes awe and inspire me, sending me down an endless path to try to share my passions through my photography.
To try to communicate what I feel - rather than simply what my camera sees - requires all the various tools available today, and I use them without apology or restraint. I want to reproduce the drama and vibrancy that emerges when I am on the shooting location. As an example, to be alone in Monument Valley very early in the morning, to feel these breathtaking formations in the darkness and then experience them as they gradually appear and are set on fire as the sun rises – that is what I live for.
