Meet the man behind the lens

Born in 1949 in Brooklyn, New York, I received early exposure to art and artists through my father, who had a studio in Manhattan and was a photo-realist painter and illustrator of book covers and movie posters. It was my dad who encouraged me to develop an interest in photography and pursue an education in the field of image-making.

I started making photographs in 1966 as the editor of my high school yearbook, using a Rolliflex 120mm twin-lens reflex camera. I built a darkroom in the basement of my parents' house and developed a deep love for the wondrous process of printmaking and film developing. My earliest images were photographs made on the streets of NYC, consisting mainly of architectural details and candid shots of people.

After graduating from high school, I studied fashion photography at the Fashion Institute Of Technology in NYC. As a student of commercial photography at the Art Center College Of Design in Los Angeles, I was introduced to and learned to master the use of large format view cameras.

My current images are created with an 8X10 wood field camera, using old Goerz Dagor and Artar lenses. I create silver chloride contact prints from my negatives. Additionally, I produce Platinum/Palladium prints of select images in limited editions. I do not create photographic images to be enlarged but rather see them as contact prints from the beginning. I am greatly influenced by the images and photographic styles of artists such as Edward Weston, Wynn Bullock, Paul Strand, Brett Weston, Minor White, and Paul Caponigro. I choose to aim my lens at the undisturbed beauty often found in uninhabited, light-struck spaces and take a meditative and contemplative approach to image-making.