Early work

My early training as a geologist informed much of my original photographic vision. Documenting the geologic features of the landscape was more born from scientific inquiry than any aesthetic vision. However, I had always been interested in art, and had an early mentor in my high school art teacher, Vic Moore. In college I switch majors from Geology to Fine Art in my senior year, and it was then that I became aware of the possibilities of using the camera as an artistic tool. I became aware of the work of Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Minor White, Elliot Porter, among others.

Early work was often somewhat geologic in nature— landscapes and natural details, often taken using a 4×5 view camera, which I carried on long backpacking trips. I taught myself the Kodak Dye Transfer process, at the time the best color printing method— even though it was slow, painstaking and expensive.