Thanks for visiting my web site.

About me ...I was born in Camden, NJ in 1956. I grew up in New Jersey and spent summers in Maine where I learned outdoor craft. In 1974 I came to East Tennessee for college.

Photography has been an obsession of mine since 1976 when I shot and developed my first roll of film. Watching the magic of an image appearing in the developer had me hooked. For the last 20 years I've been shooting a wide range of commercial photography. Annual reports, architecture, fashion, and even retinal angiograms. I began teaching photography at Maryville College in 2001 in the Fine Arts Department. Teaching has helped me build skills and codify my philosophy. Colleagues at the school are exciting artists that are motivating.

On digital photography:
I t's great! Continuous shooting, I don't have to lose the rhythm of a shoot by stopping to change the film frequently and 'just one more' is always possible.

Color balance, I can change color balance on the fly. Shoot in daylight then walk into a tungsten lit building and make a simple adjustment on the camera rather than changing films or adding filters. With custom white balance I can deal with any odd temperature light source I may encounter. I even use the digital camera as a color meter to determine which CC filters to use for large format film, very handy.

Instant gratification, I can immediately get an impression of my images and adjust the exposure, color, focus or composition to accommodate the look I want. No more expensive Polaroids™ that gave inaccurate exposure and color but at least gave you an approximation of the set.

Why I love B&W film:

Longevity, it's more archival than any color film or digital images, a stable image will remain the same if I print it in another 20 years.

Warmth. There is an organic feeling to the archival processes like silver gelatin and gum bichromate. The final prints feels more human and craft is exposed. Every step of the process from shooting to printing requires my attention and touch, it's much more personal.

Sensuality. A well crafted print reveals more of itself to me as I view it. I've gone into 11x14's with a 4x loupe and found amazing detail from slow speed films and sharp lenses. Even faster, grainy films enlarged render beauty lost in a noisy digital image.

The digital camera is a wonderful tool that's great for commercial work, my personal work continues to be B&W.
It's like the difference between a hand-written love letter and an email.