Nature nominee

Years ago, when I took the Meyers-Briggs personality test, it confirmed that, of the modes of orientation described by Jung, my principal mode is intuition. That faculty is, in a sense, an ability to see what is dark to the conscious mind. The same might be said of imagination. As Shelley wrote: "It is necessary to imagine what we know." Many of the artworks that I love are marked, visually as well as spiritually, by the shining of light into dark places: for instance, paintings by Goya and Beckmann in, films by Ingmar Bergman, photographs by Bill Brandt. Brandt often took photographs at night or in deep shadow, or he used darkroom techniques to make it appear as though he had. I’ve often produced such effects with flash, high speed synchronization, multiple flash units, fast shutter speeds, digital darkroom controls. But though the techniques are sometimes complex, my aim is lighting that feels natural, unobtrusive, albeit dramatic. And even if the subjects of the images are trees (as they are in this series) or inanimate objects, I want to bring out the character, the resonance, the life that’s manifested in them, or that might be manifested through them.

Sloan Scholar for the Humanities at the University of Michigan; received MFA from University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Received various Prizes, Honorable Mentions, or Prize Nominations in the international Fine Art Photography Awards (2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019); International Photography Awards (2023, 2022, 2015); International COLOR Awards (2023, 2022, 2021); reFocus Color Photography Awards (2023); reFocus World Photo Annual Awards (2023); and Analog Sparks International Film Photography Awards (2023). Work selected (multiple times each) for numerous juried exhibitions of the Center for Photographic Art (Carmel, CA), the Center for Fine Art Photography (Fort Collins, CO), PhotoPlace Gallery (Middlebury, VT), Praxis Gallery (Minneapolis, MN), Black Box Gallery (Portland, OR), The Atlanta Photography Group Gallery (Atlanta, GA), A Smith Gallery (TX), and other venues. Photographs published in F-Stop Magazine, The Photo Review (Annual International Competition issue); COLOR Magazine (Merit Award), Shadow & Light Magazine, and other publications.