Artist's Statement: Slow Down and Look Around
In today's world, everyone's life seems hard-wired for fast-paced action, in every aspect of their lives. Almost every waking hour is filled, hurriedly moving from one scheduled event to the next, fulfilling an endless list of demands.
I firmly believe that we need to Slow Down and Look Around. We are moving at "blinding speed," making us incapable of seeing and experiencing the beauty around us. The media and language I use to spread and communicate my message are of both the black and white silver gelatin photograph and the colorful digital image print, with a plain spoken vocabulary that bridges the natural and man made worlds around us.
The photographer Edward Weston, an influence on my work, said:
"I am the adventurer on a voyage of discovery, ready to receive fresh impressions, eager for fresh horizons, not in the spirit of a militant conqueror to impose myself or my ideas, but to identify myself in, and unify with, whatever I'm able to recognize as significantly part of me, the "me" of universal rhythms."
This is what I aspire to as a fine art photographer. I am happily blessed with a drive to capture beauty, both representational and abstract beauty, and find expressions of eloquence to portray in my photography. I am driven to create images that possess a powerful restorative and soothing force, and am always working to find ways to communicate those positive feelings and inspire all who see my work.
Sometimes the subjects of my photography are hiding in the tangled growth of a preserved section of rain forest, and on other occasions the subject is in full view along a walk on a New York City avenue. But no matter where I find my inspired frames of beauty, I continually develop the perception that life would be better lived at a different pace, one that will continuously allow and help us to see who and where we are.