WHO?
I am a color photographer based in NYC (for now). In my professional life I am a freelance video editor. Apart from photography I have a great interest in music (I am a conservatory-trained jazz musician), visual art and the cinema, the latter of which has played a great role in my understanding of still photography, both aesthetically and technically.
Back in 2011 I found my mother’s old Olympus SLR and loaded some color film into it. I was in shock and awe when I got the photos back from the drugstore (unintentional homage to Eggleston) and while most images on the roll were a bust, one of them turned out much better than I had expected it to. I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since, forever the third wheel to camera and reality.
WHERE?
While based in NYC, I am originally from Seattle and I photograph everywhere and anywhere I find myself, aside from these two cities. I learned early on not to leave my camera at home (or even inside the bag I was carrying). I’ve found that there really are pictures waiting everywhere, it’s just a matter of being receptive to what the world puts together day-to-day.
WHEN?
Anytime, anywhere. I used to seek out “good” light to take photographs in but that ended up stressing me out because I was always missing out on prime periods of light, especially in NYC where the buildings blot out much light at any given time. While I still enjoy the “golden hour” I’ve found that any given time of the day (and any weather) provides its own riches, provided I succeed in being attentive and working with what I am given.
WHAT?
I take photographs of unplanned life, in color, usually on 35mm (sometimes 120) film. I’ve tried rather hard over the years to shed any preconception of what the work should include in terms of a priori subjects, themes or composition. I found that as soon as I stopped trying to emulate a favorite picture in my head I could see what was actually happening around me more clearly, and having done that it became clear that color is the organizing factor in much, if not all my work in terms of my attraction to a potential frame. A friend recently told me they found some of my work to have a “disquieting” feeling and I’m not sure what that means precisely but I like it. I hope to make photographs that invite the viewer in without one intended meaning, but rather the feeling of being in the world and experiencing the chance arrangements and combinations of color and life.
WHY?
I’ve found that I become agitated when I’m not able to process what I’m seeing through photography, regardless of whether the photos come out any good. To that extent photography has come to be an essential activity of life; affirming and ennobling an array of objects, people, experiences and perception itself. It’s my hope and belief that through photography one can find one’s way back to the world and all of the beauty and mystery that make it worth living here.
