Artist’s Statement

My photography is an expression of my intimate and life-long connection to nature.  Over time my worldview has evolved, and today I believe that everything in nature, animals, plants, water, places, and the earth herself, possesses a unique and recognizable spiritual essence and that we are all unquestionably interconnected.

The ephemeral quality of nature and natural light ensures that no matter how many times I visit a place I’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 freeze those fleeting images of nature that excite me and strongly express the spirit of my subjects. 

I previsualize (a term coined by Ansel Adams) the final print and will work with a subject until I feel that I have captured the vision of the image I see in my mind’s eye Sometimes my vision isn’t of the scene as it is in front of me, and I find myself returning to a favorite subject over and over again 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 that subject’s spirit. When I’m making photographs of natural subjects I try to avoid including anything that shows the hand of man, although that gets more difficult all the time!

Because of my long association with and love of film, and the many 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 strive to bring out those elements that caused me to make the photograph in the first place, and to match the quality, color, and tonal range of light I visualized at the moment I tripped the shutter in the final print.

I’m convinced that the ultimate expression of the photographer’s vision 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 a distant second to viewing a well-crafted print in person.

I am saddened and concerned that so many of Earth’s beautiful spirits are threatened, endangered, or simply gone forever due to my species’ thoughtless impacts on our planet.  I strongly believe that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness should apply equally to all of nature and that we humans have greatly overstepped our place in the world.. 

My objective is to increase awareness of the natural world and create a connection with my subjects in others through my photographs in the hope that we can come together to make the changes 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.