For me, photography has been and always will be about magic.
When I was sixteen, it was the feeling of watching ghostly images float up from the developer tray in the reddish gloom of a darkroom. Later, working as a young community journalist, it was the way my camera gave me effortless entry into the lives of strangers. Nowadays, collaborating on fine art images offers me a way into new friendships and alliances, and access to the hyper-creativity that can result when two people get caught up in a shared vision. I’ve also been lucky enough to occasionally teach photography to high school students throughout my career. That, along with exhibiting my work, provides yet another kind of community. The circle completes.
All my life, what motivates me to keep photographing are those moments when suddenly the magic happens, things fall together in front of the lens… an almost holy spirit envelops me, and the whole scene takes on an intensity that may last 1/60th of a second or a few hours… I cannot tell, because in that state time as we know it does not exist. When I next encounter those images, on my computer monitor, the magic returns as I see exactly what I’ve captured. Finally, comes the moment when I watch the finished image slowly roll out of the printer… bliss.
I want to make photographs that touch people and, in some sense, bear witness to the complex times we live in. To make work that matters, to create a picture that stops people in their tracks. It’s a goal we photographers must fail at repeatedly to even get close to creating one transcendent image in a year, a decade or a lifetime. But there is sanctuary in the trying.
Selected Recognition & Exhibitions
2023
My image “Baptism” from the series Walk in Beauty is appearing in a group show called The Photo Review: Best of Show 2023 at the Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia, PA from August 5th to October 31st 2023. The prize-winning portrait was awarded third place from more than 1300 entries, by juror Deborah Willis, Ph.D., MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellow, and University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. The exhibition includes the work of the 15 prizewinners of the 2023 International Photography Competition organized by The Photo Review, a leading critical review of photography since 1976.
My photograph “The Splinter” was also juried into The Photo Review’s online Prize Winners Gallery
My image “Baptism” from the series Walk in Beauty appears this summer at the Laurence Miller Gallery in New York City online as a “Photo of the Week”, alongside images by Eadweard Muybridge and Helen Levitt.
My image “Paper Dolls” from the series Walk in Beauty, will be part of a Pop-Up exhibit at the 20th Anniversary SLOW Exposures Festival, a juried exhibition celebrating the photography of the contemporary rural South. The exhibit, curated by Anne Berry, is entitled Touching Magic: Scenes from an Enchanted Wilderness. It runs from September 14th to September 17th 2023 at Split Oak Farm in Zebulon, GA.
My Walk in Beauty series will have its debut exhibition from October 17th to November 21st at the Considine Gallery in Princeton, NJ. Opening reception at 5:30 p.m. on October 17th.
Unbroken
My image “Unbroken” appeared in an exhibition sponsored by the Palm Beach Photographic Centre and the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County. The exhibit ran from February 24th to April 8th 2023.
My image “Baptism” from the series Walk in Beauty, was juried by acclaimed photographer Keith Carter into an exhibition sponsored by the Texas Photographic Society, and held from January 19th to March 11th 2023 at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Abilene, TX.
2022
In November 2022, six photographs from my Walk in Beauty series were awarded an Honorable Mention in the Black & White Series category of the 19th Annual Julia Margaret Cameron Award 2022 Competition. My image “The Splinter” was also a prizewinner, juried into the Portrait category.
Fourteen images from my Walk in Beauty series were published in the October/November 2022 issue of SXSE Photography Magazine together with an artist’s statement and the full text of the closing prayer of the Navajo Blessing Way ceremony.
My photograph “Shrine Keeper” was exhibited at the Praxis Gallery in Minneapolis, MI from October 15 to October 29th 2022, as part of an exhibit titled Nocturnes: Dusk till Dawn, juried by Wendi Schneider.
My image “Oranges” appeared at the 19th Anniversary SLOW Exposures Festival, an exhibition celebrating photography of the contemporary rural South. The show was juried by Michael Pannier and Maria Kelly, Assistant Curator of Photography at the High Museum, Atlanta, GA.
My photograph “Swoon” from the series Walk in Beauty, appeared on the walls of the South by Southeast Gallery in Molena, GA, from August 10th to September 3oth 2022, as part of an exhibit titled Portraits in an Intimate Environment. Juried by John W. Cary.
Juror Sandra Chen Weinstein chose my image “The Splinter” to be part of The Portrait exhibit at Praxis Gallery in Minneapolis, MI, which ran from July 16th to July 30th 2022.
My photograph “Conjuring” from the Walk in Beauty series, was juried into the exhibition SHE at ASmith Gallery in Johnson City, Texas. The exhibit ran from June 10th to July 21st 2022. The image was also selected for the gallery’s fine art limited edition publication of the top 27 images in the show. Juried by Sandra Chen Weinstein.
My image “Impermanence” appeared in the Landscapes exhibit at the Dallas Center for Photography from May 12th to May 27th 2022. Juried by Dr. Laszlo Perlaky.
My image “Havana Dawn” appeared as part of The Streets exhibit at The Praxis Gallery in Minneapolis, MI, from April 16th to April 30th 2022. Juried by Sarah Weiss.
My image “Cloud Mountain No.2” was juried by Aline Smithson into the exhibit Transience, which ran from April 16th to April 30th 2022, at The Praxis Gallery in Minneapolis, MI.
Family Medicine
My photograph “Family Medicine” appeared as part of the exhibit Conversations with the Archive at the Southeast Center for Photography in Greenville, SC, which ran from April 1st to April 30th 2022. “Family Medicine” is a bricolage assembled from ancestor and contemporary photographs, vintage homeopathic remedies and treasures from nature. Juried by Aline Smithson.
My image “Aurora” was selected for exhibition in the 2022 Winter Show of The Curated Fridge Art Gallery in Cambridge, MA
2021
My image “With Cat Thing” from the series In the Era of Pandemic, appeared in the Human Portrait exhibit at The Dallas Center for Photography from November 11th to December 5th 2021. Juried by Jennifer Spelman.
My photograph “Impermanence” appeared in the Contemporary Landscape exhibit at the Southeast Center for Photography in Greenville, SC, from November 5th to November 27th 2021. Juried by William Neill.
I was honored to be invited to the October 2021 Pigs Fly Retreat on Cumberland Island, GA, founded by Anne Berry and Lori Vrba. Ten photographers came together for a week to explore the primitive mystery and magic of the island and each other’s work.
My image “Baptism” from the series Walk in Beauty, was exhibited at the CLICK! Photo Festival in North Carolina, in October 2021. The photograph was chosen to be part of Click! Festival’s outdoor “Persevere” exhibit in the sculpture park of the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, NC. Juried by Jennifer Dasal, the museum’s curator of contemporary art.
Volcano
My image “Volcano” appeared in the Vistas exhibition at the ASmith Gallery in Johnson City, Texas from August 14 to September 27th 2020. Juried by Gayle Stevens.
My image “Celebrating Abuelo” from the Dia de Muertos series appeared in the Light exhibit at the Southeast Center for Photography in Greenville, SC, from August 7th to August 29th2020. Juried by Crista Dix.
My image “The Splinter” appeared in the domicile exhibit at the ASmith Gallery in Johnson City, TX from June 26th to August 9th 2020. Juried by Amanda Smith and Kevin Tully.
My image “The Splinter” appeared in the Portraits exhibit at the Center for Fine Photography in Fort Collins, CO, from May 13th to June 13th 2020. Juried by Paula Tognarelli.
My image “The Splinter” appeared in the May 2020 Picturing Home exhibition at the Dallas Center for Photography. Juried by Nancy Borowick.
My image “First Glance” appeared in the Black, White & More exhibit at the Southeast Center for Photography, Greenville, SC from March 6th to April 15th 2020. Juried by Paula Tognarelli.
My image “Guardian of the Bones” from the Under Land portfolio collection, won First Prize in the Contrast exhibit that ran from February 19th to March 31st 2020 at the Dallas Center for Photography. Juried by Peter Poulides.
A portfolio of seven images from my “Guardian of the Bones” series won the Jay Colton Award for Best Portfolio at the 25th Annual Fotofusion Festival sponsored by the Palm Beach Photographic Centre in January 2020.
The Smile
2020
My image “The Smile” from the Under Land portfolio collection, was published in the Portraits issue of Shadow & Light Magazine, September/October, 2020. Juried by Tim Anderson.
My image “The Splinter” won an Honorable Mention in the Texas Photographic Society’s exhibit that ran from September 17th to November 14th 2020 at The Center for Contemporary Arts in Abilene, TX. Juried by Bill Wright.
My image “Baptism” from the Walk in Beauty series was exhibited at The Dallas Center for Photography from September 15th to October 2nd 2021. Juried by Peter Poulides.
My image “Doll with Polaroid” appeared in the Making Strange exhibit at the Praxis Gallery in Minneapolis, MI, from September 19th to October 13th 2020. Juried by Doug Beasley.
My image “Bull from the Bus” was selected for the 20th Annual Juried Exhibition at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre, West Palm Beach, FL.
Tati’s sister
2019
My image “Tati’s Sister” appeared in the Surroundings exhibit at ASmith Gallery in Johnson City, TX from December 20th 2019 to January 26th 2020. Juried by Kat Kiernan.
My images “Tati at Home” and “Tati’s Sister” appeared from November 5th 2019 to January 6th 2020, in the Defining Home exhibit at the Woody Gaddis Gallery at the University of Central Oklahoma.
My image “Guardian of the Bones” from the Under Land portfolio collection, appeared from October 26th 2019 to January 4th 2020 in the Urban Landscapes exhibition, sponsored by the Texas Photographic Society and hung at the Silos at Sawyer Yards Gallery in Houston, TX. Juried by Jamie Stillings.
Havana Dawn
My image “Havana Dawn” won an Honorable Mention in the Secondary Color exhibition that ran from October to November 2019 at the New York Center for Photographic Art. Juried by Claudia Sohrens of the International Center of Photography.
My image “Guardian of the Bones” from the Under Land portfolio collection, appeared at 21st Annual Juried Exhibition at The Palm Beach Photo Centre, from August 24th to October 26th 2020. Juried by Lewis Kemper.
2018
My image “The Smile” from the Under Land portfolio collection, appeared in the 22nd Annual Juried Exhibition at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre from August 24th to October 27th 2018. Juried by Scott McKiernan.