A R T I S T I C  S T A T E M E N T

For me, photography is stealing a moment in time. I find myself searching for moments in this ever-changing, ever-mobile world in which we live. It’s amazing that we can capture something concrete. Even more incredible is the idea that we could find in that moment something unique and genuine. I don’t believe that every photo shows us reality, but it does show us the reality of the moment, the intensity of it. It makes time visible in all its beauty and imperfection.

I’ve often struggled with the notion of doing justice to beauty. How does one capture beauty, capture feelings and thoughts and translate them into a language without words? Part of the culture of man is to dissect aesthetics and to question what constitutes art. Plato once said that the contemplation of beauty causes the soul to grow wings. I just know I’d never be happy unless I was taking pictures.When I shoot, I don’t think about what I want to find or what I want to frame. I think about listening and seeing in ways that perhaps I hadn’t before. I turn inward. Thoughts and memories direct my feet, drawing my attention to specific details. I seek to capture a moment and personalize it, arrest the viewer as I’ve stopped time. I don’t seek to find perfection or manipulate an image digitally, smudging and so-called correcting it. I’m not against manipulation, but I’d rather do it in the darkroom. An image is as it is as I saw it in my head and as my camera captured it. I present it to the viewer and hope to draw you into my memories and into my feelings. Kojiro Tomita said that art is a tryst, for in the joy of it maker and beholder meet. I find this to be true.