Artist’s Statement

My photography is an expression of my intimate and life-long connection to nature.  My worldview has evolved over time and, like lots of people who live close to nature, I’m convinced that everything in nature — animals, plants, water, places, and the earth herself — possess a unique and recognizable spirit and that we are all undeniably interconnected. We are all earthlings, we all share a common origin, and we have evolved over the millennia to work as a system. A couple hundred years ago people didn’t have the knowledge to prove that, though many felt it intuitively. We do not have that excuse today.

The ephemeral quality of nature and natural light ensures that no matter how many times we visit a place we’ll never see the same scene twice.  My goal as a photographer is to combine my experience and training as both a naturalist and an artist to catch those fleeting views of nature that excite me and strongly express the spirit of my subjects.  I visualize the final print and will work with a subject until I feel I have captured the vision of the image I have in my mind.

Sometimes my vision doesn’t match in the scene in front of me. So, if I am really excited about the possibilities, I return to that subject in different light, seasons, and weather conditions to see as many of their aspects and moods as I can, searching for the combinations that seem to me to best capture the spirit of the place. When I’m making photographs of natural subjects and landscapes I try to avoid including anything that shows the hand of man, although that gets more difficult every day!

My photographs are “straight” images, I refrain from adding or taking significant elements away digitally. I do not use artificial intelligence, or AI, and believe that many artists’ and authors’ copyrights have been violated in creating AI.

Because of my long association with and love of film, and the consequent years spent sorting slides and working in the darkroom, my approach to processing images is comparable whether the image is captured on a digital sensor or on film. I work to bring out those elements that caused me to make the photograph in the first place and to express the quality, color, and/or tonal range of light I visualized at the moment I tripped the shutter.

For me, the ultimate expression of the photographer’s vision is only possible in a well-executed, fine art print. It’s only through printing a photograph that I can express my artistic vision and intent, and share that vision with others. I love the digital world of photography for the ability to share pictures quickly and broadly, but viewing a picture on a monitor is worlds away from viewing a well-crafted print in person.

I am very saddened and concerned that so many of Earth’s beautiful spirits are threatened, endangered or simply gone forever due to human’s thoughtless impacts on our planet. I believe that we should respect our planet and all of its inhabitants and that we humans have greatly overstepped our place in the world.

My objective is to make powerful photographs of the natural world. Time is literally running out for us to come together and make the change necessary to heal our planet before the damage we have caused and continue to inflict becomes irreversible, and before any more of Earth’s spirits, including ours, are lost forever. If my photographs encourage anyone else to feel the same, that would be all the legacy I could ask for.