Fine Art Gallery

Black and White

These images were shot in color and processed to black and white to create bolder and more straight forward statements that can only be made with the right selection of images. They summarize my major themes: landscapes, city scenes from locations around the world, architectural details, grand panoramas, beautiful gardens, and details in nature. My style is straight forward and sometimes documentary. In every case, it is about the light and the shadows. I love how black and white emphasizes the mood, character, texture, and atmosphere of subjects like historic old places with wonderful stone surfaces or peeling paint, and candid portraits that celebrate the individuality of each subject, expressing humanity, unique personality, or physiological characteristics.

Black and white reveals how time has taken its toll on the faces of people in Cuba and helps to create a deeper story. This candid style of photographing people requires a combination of serendipity, total control of craft, and intuition, which is triggered by an inner signal harnessed by photographic maturity and life experience. I am a trained observer and can work quickly to capture the physical side of the subject as well as the emotional side by using whatever lighting is available.

Painterly

My goal is always to capture images and process them in a way that depicts the special character of the place and recreate the sensations that I felt when I was there. Many have a romantic and pictorial style reminiscent of old English painting techniques, realistic, yet timeless with an atmospheric feeling. They are keen observations and records of environments from around the world.

Other images are more abstract or contain mixed media techniques. We rarely really look at the small things around us. If we could stop to smell the flowers, we would discover a myriad of subtle hues, graceful lines, and rich textures. I want to give new life to the extraordinary in the mundane and work with the elements and principles of design to isolate and simplify until I have created a composition that has the qualities of an abstract painting. Or use other art mediums along with my printed image to show my subject in a new way. Working and seeing things in this way has allowed me to move away from the narrative image to another place where perhaps nostalgia, fantasy, Zen, or a feeling of the familiar live.

Landscapes

My landscape images will take you to many beautiful places around the world. The topic of landscape photography is quite broad. I have narrowed my interests to include flowers, nature, especially trees, and all things botanical. Many contain the presence of man or animals, but my favorites include only the land.

Landscape photography has become a source of inspiration and discovery for me, so much so that I have written a whole book about it called Nature as Inspiration for Art to share my tips and information.

In 1978 and 1980, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Ansel Adams in California and then teach at the Ansel Adams Workshop on a number of occasions. Through this association, I was exposed to Ansel’s philosophy on preservation and documentation of the landscape and learned a special respect and love of the land and how to use photography to showcase my experiences and observations.

Locations

Since 1970, I have traveled throughout the world working on various photographic and video projects which has given me the opportunity to explore many popular and cherished places with my cameras. I love to experience a different culture and photograph the artifacts, architecture, cities, and environments. The beauty of going to so many locations is an opportunity to create unique portfolios.

Sometimes, I get to travel to a place several times and really have a chance to get to know it and even some of the people. I have done many workshops in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Cuba, and Italy so there are lots of images from those sites. When I can visit a location more than once, I can get beyond the obvious images and really get to know a place. Sometimes strong statements or even seeing details cannot come until there is a clear understanding of the space, the stories, and the history. Other locations include New Jersey, Scotland, Ireland, New Zealand, and Iceland.

Still Life

This is quite a varied category even though it is broken down into only objects and food photography. I enjoy finding objects and creating compositions using color, light, or shadow to establish the structure of an image. Some are everyday objects and others are artifacts found while traveling. I always try to isolate and simplify the visual for impact.

I am working on a cookbook with three chefs in Italy and one locally. Most of these images were created in the studio where I can control everything, and others were captured on location at restaurants. I will often do a long exposure in very low light and use a flashlight as a paint brush to light the food plates and create highlights. The technique is called Painting with Light. It is fun to create such unique images that could not be done any other way.