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hotography provides me with a means to explore the world and my existence within it. I
continually strive to heighten my sensitivity in life, and when I photograph I choose
subject matter that is important to me. The photographs themselves, as with the process of
seeing, must strike me on a personal level in order for me to appreciate an image. As
Frederick Sommer liked to say, "It is not subject matter, but a subject that matters."
Often the photographs I am most fond of can be seen as both sentimental and emotionally
challenging. Even though I expose negatives on a regular basis, the number of images I
feel worthy of printing is relatively small. I am not so interested in offering the viewers
an easy perspective with formulated solutions. Instead, I attempt to rattle the viewers'
existence, raising emotional issues and questions so they may connect with their own feelings
and beliefs.
I have always attempted to find a balance between aesthetic and communicative concerns. At
times I feel like a modernist in a postmodern world. When I consider myself a postmodernist,
it's due to my concern with the social and political implications an image presents from
the conception through creation and onto the presentation's final expression. When I
consider myself as a modernist, it's because I am more typically invested in the metaphorical
interpretations in each step of the process and the image that is ultimately created, and I
am always searching to be moved by the image's aesthetic beauty.
I received an MFA in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1986. My
photographs have been exhibited throughout the country and internationally. My work is
included in many private and public collections including The Whitney Museum of American
Art, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, The Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and Harvard University.
I am the professor of photography at Marlboro College in Vermont. I am also Co-Founder and
President of the Board for the In-Sight Photography Project, a non-profit organization run
predominately by volunteers. In-Sight has offered free photography classes to Southern
Vermont youth since 1992.. Teaching photography is just one more way I can utilize the
medium as a tool for exploration and communication. I am confident I gain as much from
the contact with my students and viewers as they do from me.
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