Artist’s Biography

Group juried photography exhibition,

April 2004:

Three works included in group exhibit at Artisans Gallery, Mill Valley, Ca.

Group juried art exhibition, February 2004:

Two works included in group exhibit at Artisans Gallery, Mill Valley, Ca.

Solo Print Exhibit, October 2003:

Twenty one works titled “Landscapes and Still Lifes” in the artist’s gallery of the Lodge at Sonoma, in Sonoma, CA.

2003:
Completed digital pigment printing project to prepare for solo show.

2001-2002:
Digital Photography and Fine Art Printing:

Sabbatical working in the studio of Vincent Versace at the Presidio in San Francisco. Vincent was artist in residence for the Presidio Trust in 2002 and was working on a documentary still digital photo project for the Trust.  In his studio we used Nikon D1-X cameras and Nikon scanners with Nikon capture and view software. Our prints were made on Epson large format pigment printers. We  used image compression and other enhancing software and paper/printer profiles when printing images. My experience with pigment printing began at this time.

2000 to 2001:
Digital Imaging Studies:

During this time I completed a year of Adobe Photoshop studies at City College of San Francisco, photography department, completing their advanced computer imaging course in the fall 2001. Reference: Marcia Beales; CCSF instructor

Education:
I studied art and art history in college.
I am self taught in photography, beginning in 1973.

Work History:
I have been a professional photographer since 1980 working in advertising and publishing, I began working primarily for art galleries, and then retail clients and publishers producing catalogs, periodical ads, point of purchase images, greeting cards, posters and editorial illustration.

Non-profit work Since 2000:
I have provided photographs for the promotional use of the Golden State Bonsai Collection in Oakland as well as designing a poster and brochure cover. I continue to document The Collection’s bonsai trees and garden as they evolve.

Artist’s Statement

When I was a child, my babysitter, who was an art student in New York City, taught me to draw and invited me into the world of visual expression. Painting, collage, model building and theatrical exposition filled my earliest years' interests. Poetry, writing, and art became interests as I was growing up. I studied art techniques and history in college and worked in art galleries afterward.

I started taking photographs in 1973 and it quickly diverted my art making and viewing directions. Photography is the art of capturing light. Photographic printing is the art and act of interpretation of that captured moment. I determined to master the mechanical and technical challenges presented in order to achieve the pictorial promise of the art. Just as a latent image on undeveloped film is a moment waiting to be recalled the images we capture have a further step before the process is complete. The print is the finished work.

The original photograph therefore waits for interpretation. In practicing photography there are a myriad of printing mediums for the artist to choose from each with it’s own emphasis and look. The feeling of pigmented ink on smooth fine art paper presented, for me, an opportunity to interpret my film based images in a manner closer to intaglio, and fine art printing sensibilities then I had previously experienced. The parallel development of “Adobe Photoshop” as a digital telescoping of traditional silver based darkroom techniques created a perfect opportunity to give expression to my captured images.

Among my fine art images are a series of moonlit landscapes and black and white infrared  portraits of extrodinary trees and Japanese landscapes My first moonlit landscape was photographed in Monument Valley in 1991. I was impressed by how bright the valley was once the full moon rose and the soft quality of the light. I took an exposure reading and set my camera on a tripod and opened the shutter and waited and watched. When I developed the negatives I was excited by the images I had captured. After printing my favorites I started thinking about other ways to photograph under the full moonlight. I soon realized that it required that I be far from the artificial night lighting of towns and cities which could over power the subtle moonlight. However I liked the lights of the cars’ headlamps as they passed through the scene providing a highlight key and an allusion to time. I have returned to the desert since for the darkness and the dramatic geological features. This project is ongoing.

I first learned about infrared photography from reading Ansel Adams books. I discovered later when I became interested in photographing dramatic trees that it allowed me to render the foliage of trees apart from the trunk and branches. I like the way the infrared captures the exuberance of the light dancing on the foliage. California oaks and high desert trees have been the main focus of these studies.

On a recent trip to Japan, I photographed on black and white infrared film, a series of landscapes at some of the Shinto and Zen temple gardens in Kyoto.

My color works are as much about color and light as they are about form or subject. I celebrate saturated color and dramatic lighting and the singularity of my subjects.