My love of photography started in the 7th grade. I remarked to my teacher about a photograph pinned to a bulletin board showing a basketball waiting to drop into the net. We talked about the photograph, about how amazing I thought it was to be able to freeze a moment in time, the basketball frozen in space, forever waiting to drop. The next day my teacher, Ms. Jahn gave me one of her photographs, it was of a flower. It was a small black and white print with her name written on the back. She then introduced my to another teacher who let me watch him make a print in the darkroom at our school. Watching the blank sheet of paper slipping into the developer and then seeing the image slowly emerge is all it took. I have been making photographs ever since.
Photography has introduced me to so many different people including artists, musicians, athletes, and actors. My photography has placed me in environments I would have never had access to without my camera, standing on the fence inches away from a cowboy getting settled on a bull, tightening the ropes for the best grip. Across the fence from Nazi demonstrators, photographing them and more importantly the protesters who out shouted them. I've been on movie sets, even having the pleasure of talking with Jimmy Stewart during the filming of a movie in Sonoma County.
My favorite type of photography is environmental portraiture. I want show a person's home or studio, or place of work. With their enviornment as the background in the photograph the viewer learns more about the person being photographed. But then again sometimes simple is best. A quiet background and a face are at times all that is needed to bring out the core of a person, the subtlest expression can create the most interesting story in the viewers mind.
