Art Open House at NMCC, March 2, 2018. Roadrunner, his iconic photo
Artist Statement
I have been a photographer of one sort or another all my life. I began as a volunteer apprentice (at about 10 years old) to the “town photographer” in the southern Vermont village where I grew up. He used his darkroom and his unwieldy view cameras to make photos of all the local events and citizens, and he taught me how to use and appreciate those tools. In those days when the world of photography was much younger; before you could ask the computer in your camera to do it all for you; before you could see the photo you just took on the back of the camera; and before film was put on the endangered species list; back in those near-prehistoric times, you had to do everything about the photograph yourself, and you had to understand what you were doing and why.
From the very first time I saw a blank sheet of paper in the developing tray turn into a photograph, I knew I had to be a photographer. That magic is still there for me, undiminished. I went on to a very different career, but always took pictures as an avocation. I did portraiture, advertising and commercial photographs, and a great deal of scientific and technical photography; but always as a sideline, until I retired from my “day job” and could do photography full-time.
I regard myself as a nature photographer, trying to capture and display the forms and aspects of our world. I want to show the underlying patterns and details in nature and the world in general, especially those elements which we usually see fleetingly or not at all. I am fascinated by the unimaginable complexity and richness of detail seen in all life, and do my best to capture it in my photographs.
