Artist's Statement:

My approach to photography is unapologetically classical, with one significant caveat. Unlike black and white photographers of past eras, I "see" in color during image capture. During digital post-processing however, I am drawn to experiment in monochrome as well as color, which frequently leads to unexpected results.

The vision of Chicago in my photographs is a reflection of my love for the city, my knowledge of its rich history, my professional training as an architect and urban planner, and my deep appreciation for its natural and man-made features such as the Chicago River. The city appears often in my work, and in many different guises.

Chicago is where I spend most of my time, but my photographic interests are as far-ranging as my travels allow. Philosophically, I trend to cultural and historical evidence of man's presence, such as in cemeteries and industrial installations. Urban landscapes can be found everywhere there are cities; rural landscapes everywhere there are towns and farms; industrial sites wherever man's ingenuity transforms materials.

Advances in digital photography provide the tools for me to refine my craft to an absurd degree. Endless variations can be drawn from a single image capture in ways that simply weren't possible in traditional film photography. Freed from the cost and chemicals, I can experiment to my heart's content, pushing myself as an artist to draw the most out of every image. There are no limits to the pursuit of artistic expression; no such thing as "good enough"; and no end to the journey.

Biographical Information:

My development as an artist has been influenced by my career as an architect and urban planner. Despite a love for photography that began with the childhood purchase of my first box camera, I followed a parallel path for decades. At the Illinois Institute of Technology, I supported my studies by working as a darkroom technician. A brief job for a commercial photographer taught me that I had little interest in the advertising industry. I chose architecture as a career, reasoning that it combined the aesthetic and the technical just as photography did. Early successes in my chosen profession veiled the truth: Architecture is a craft of collaboration. As an artist and ascetic, I longed to fully control my creative output.

Approaching retirement in my architectural career, I devoted more energy to my photographic passion, and sought to gain recognition for a lifetime's work in this medium. I accomplished my first goal in a quest to bring my work to the public eye as an artist accepted into the Illinois Artisan Program, where my work was awarded prizes at the Illinois State Fair in 2010, 2011 and 2012. My current goal is to use the Internet to reach a wider audience, showcasing a growing roster of photographs available for online galleries.