A Michigan native, I have been photographing the natural world ever since I first picked up a Brownie camera at age 14. In my teen years my family headed west and we lived for periods of time in California and Colorado, each of which left deep marks in my soul. I spent a portion of my peripatetic student years in Germany as well as in Montana and Illinois.

Following high school class work in medium and large format photography, like many serious shooters, I cut my teeth as a high school and college annual photographer. In college, I considered photography as a career but instead followed an even earlier muse, music, completing a BA in piano performance and an MM in music history. Initially headed toward a career as a piano accompanist, a nagging habit of research into authentic performance styles led me into libraries, and I made a career switch, eventually settling in Wichita where I've enjoyed a long career as a librarian.

Although photography continued to be a major part of my creative life, my shooting remained eclectic and unfocused through extensive travels until a wildlife safari to Kenya in 1998. The East African experience was an epiphany and served as the catalyst toward nature photography. Currently a part-time professional, I concentrate on landscapes and flowers, though wildlife and travel photography continue to exert strong draws.

I am a proponent of non-representational photography in which the photographic artist avoids portraying his subject in the most realistic way possible using the sharp lines and clearly delineated shapes of traditional photography. Through my training with Nancy Rotenberg, André Gallant, and Freeman Patterson I have developed great interest in how the mind reconstructs the visual field, filling in selectively from the information presented by the eyes. Thus, I find my work revolves around understanding rather than seeing.

In addition to the kinds of work I have already mentioned, I also do informal portrait and event photography, teach photography, and lead photo tours.

I have had several one-man shows in Wichita and have participated in group shows in Kansas City. One of my favorite means of presentation is through multi-projector photo-essay slide-sound dissolve shows. These enable me to concentrate for an audience a single location, theme, or concept. I continue to travel extensively and have photographed throughout the U.S. and Europe with travels to Africa and South America as well. Of all those, I find the most enticing places to be East Africa, Alaska, the Galapagos Islands, and the Pacific Northwest coast. In Wichita, I am represented by Gallery XII, an artist's cooperative gallery that is celebrating it's 30th anniversary in 2007.

I am a member of the North American Nature Photography Association, Great Plains Nature Photographers, The Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club, and the Audubon Society.

Artist Statement

Equipment Thoughts

updated January 12, 2008