I bought my first 35mm camera in 1970. Shortly after that I enrolled at Florissant Valley Community College to study art. I found the photography classes to very enjoyable. We studied composition and used photography to creatively express ourselves. At that time we were only working in black and white. In 1972 I participated in my first show with 10 other students.

For a number of reasons I did not pursue a career as a photographer. I continued to study photography and to take photos throughout the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. In the late 80s I went on some trips to California and the Southwest United States where I saw many of the sights that early photographers made famous. This inspired me to increase my photography activities. In 1999 I returned to Florissant Valley at night and completed an Associates Degree in Photography in June, 2006. I still have a real 40+ job in a non-photography field and I use a few hours here and there and vacations to capture and print my images.

My work explores the relationship of forms, textures and color in the everyday world. Many of my images are extractions from an old building, a distorted reflection, an architectural detail and the juxtaposition of adjoining buildings. I use these to create abstract geometrical images.

I also have always been interested in landscapes. Besides understanding composition, a big part of capturing landscapes is being in the right place at the right time. Going with another photographer that knows the area and the time of day to be at an ideal location is very helpful. In the last couple of years I attended two workshops in California with Gary Hart: Jan, 2010 Death Valley and Mt Whitney and Oct, 2009 the Eastern Sierra Mtns. These workshops, along with vacations to Europe, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania have allowed me to greatly expand my subject matter.

For many years I worked in a darkroom using vivid color 35mm and medium format film and high contrast paper. I started migrating to digital by scanning my images to a file. This is very time consuming for a part-time photographer and in 2007 I went totally digital and have not looked back. Digital allows a much more efficient workflow, and gives a much wider ability to control results. The output media has greatly increased with digital. Besides the many processes on paper, canvas and metal printing provide different aesthetic variations over the traditional photograph on paper.

I am an active member of Art Saint Louis, The St. Louis Artist’s Guild, The Best of Missouri Hands and the Foundry Art Centre. Since early 2001 I have been in over 100 juried-shows, exhibits and art fairs in Missouri.