What drives my interest in photography is a yearning to be in the moment, to be in tune with life around me. At these times, I am also more connected to myself. Photography is simply a way of being in life--a source of fulfillment, insight and connection--and conveying it through two-dimensional images.
Photography has the potential to touch and reflect our humanity. I seek to go beyond pretty pictures to capture the character, feeling and soul of a person or place. I look for what makes a subject special and enduring--what takes it beyond the ordinary. I am interested in expressions and gestures that symbolize and remind us of our commonality. I strive to get close enough to subjects to know them and to allow their story and feelings to enter my images. I seek to capture the individuality that gives the image its specificity in the world, and if successful, to reveal something universal and timeless. Finally, I am energized by the “re-play” of my creative experience when images are seen by others and a reaction is elicited.
I've always been drawn to the drama and strong compositional potential of landscapes and I share some on this website. My passion, however, has shifted to environmental portraiture and to developing visual stories that explore life around me. Ongoing series on this website explore characters on Whidbey Island near Seattle, tattoo artists, county fair hucksters, and loneliness in a crowded city. My images attempt to convey both the external context of their lives as well as their inner landscape. Shades of Edward Hopper permeate my vision and ultimately my images.
Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. This body of work focuses on the Seattle chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence that is part of an international sisterhood of nuns whose mission is "to promulgate universaljoy, expiate stigmatic guilt, and serve the community." With their richly adorned faces and over-the-top outfits, the Sisters are the "sacred fools" who challenge social proprieties with their exuberant behavior. This work: (1) photographs the people behind the masks; (2) captures the transformation process from private to public figures; and (3) documents the Sisters' public lives as performance artists and community activists.
The before-after "Sister" images on this website question conventional notions of identity: which rendition reflects the real person--where is the truth? The images highlight the malleable boundaries between genders: strong-soft, rugged-beautiful, bold-shy, forthright-enigmatic. My underlying goal is to use this series to promote greater understanding, respect, and tolerance for all members of our larger community by celebrating humanity's variety, complexity and ambiguity.
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