“As a master printer
I spend many hours in the
traditional darkroom—”
I spend many hours in the
traditional darkroom—”
At twelve, I received my first camera from my parents’ friends who owned the local photography
studio. One of my earliest memories, at the age of four, is in their studio: clad in a pink
gingham dress and black Mary Jane’s while sitting on a stool in front of white seamless with
umbrellas softening the flash. For the last 35 years I’ve carried one camera or another with me
and have recorded as unobtrusively as possible, both landscapes and unguarded revealing moments
of people around me. I have found these moments of honesty on the streets of New York City, and
in the wide-open spaces of the American West: places which are equally fascinating in the power
of place to shape personal identity.
Having spent a large percentage of my working life in the darkroom developing my skills and
becoming a master printer, I have come to using digital most reluctantly. However, the future
is here. My commercial photographic work now is mostly comprised of food photography—which has
its own satisfactions—and is almost all color and almost all digital. For those professional
photographers who still love traditional black and white fine art prints, I continue to go into
the darkroom when requested. Watching the print come up in the developer, enveloped in the warm
glow from the safelight, is a magical experience, and the tactile pleasure of a beautiful black
and white print is unsurpassed.
