My Story:

I was born in Washington, D. C. and have lived most of my life in Northern Virginia. I began my professional career in photography working at studios in Northern Virginia and Washington, D. C. There I learned portrait, lighting and darkroom techniques that served me well when I decided to go free lance.

In the late 80’s George Asman, Life Magazine’s D.C. lab chief organized the WPA (Washington Photographers Agency). I was honored to be invited to participate along with such top Washington photographers as Morton Broffman, Ken Heinen and others. George handled the finances and his lab did the film and print processing while we photographers did the shooting. It was an eclectic group of photographers doing an eclectic variety of assignments.

I think of myself as a ‘people’ photographer although free-lancing lets you dip into many other types of photography. I also think I do my best work in black and white. That’s something I miss in the age of digital photography. Detuning the color from a digital photo isn’t the same as the results you get from a well exposed and processed black and white film negative. It lacks the texture you can get from my old favorite Kodak’s  Tri-X.

For equipment, in 35mm both in the film and digital eras, I used Nikons. I found them to be more durable and reliable than the other makes. For medium format work, I have a Hasselblad rig.

Thirty years free-lancing gave me many great opportunities to record the events and the people that gave the era its meaning.