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Photographer / artist? I am an artist, who uses photography as an art medium. When I think of a photographer I think of the guy who came to shoot our school pictures, my father shooting weddings, or the so called fashion photographer who shoots glamour shots for Vogue. Even some landscape and nature photographers just shoot pictures. I am not that guy! My interest in photography dates back to my childhood when my father put a fixed lens 35mm Agfa camera in my hands and I started shooting everything in sight. He would also take me along on his wedding shoots, fix the aperture and shutter speed and send me off to take fill shots. Even then I had a sense of composition that was more than simple documentation of events. By the time I was in high school I was making documentary film strips as a part of the photography club. However, this part of my photography life was short. I was never very interested in that type of photography. I also hated shooting people. So, I put the camera down and only rarely touched one for the next 10 or 15 years.

As with reading books my mother rekindled my photography. For Christmas, at the age of 30, my mother gave me 3 books. For someone that did not read, I thought this was a strange gift. However, my mother knew me better than I knew myself. She knew I would read the biography of Thurgood Marshall, whom I idolized. She also knew that once I started reading the autobiography of Malcolm X that I would be hooked on reading for life. She was right. As with reading, she gave me an old 35mm SLR as a gift around my birthday one year. It was old, but everything worked, including the internal light meter. She had picked it up from a government auction for around $10. I didn’t know how to work it properly, and was too stubborn to ask anyone how, but I shot everything in front of me. I was hooked, again. I lost that camera. I think that it was taken from my luggage on one my trips. I was compelled to replace it. So, I bought myself an entry level Nikon 35mm SLR. I didn’t like the lens that came with it so I bought a 70mm to 200mm zoom lens. With the help of auto focus and the auto exposure settings, I was able to produce reasonably good pictures. But, as an engineer, I wasn’t satisfied with just reasonable. So I decided to sign up for a class at the local community college. I must say that the pictures that I produced during that year and a half are still some of my favorite pictures. However, I was still unsatisfied. I wanted my images to have a professional quality.

Working as an engineer taught me allot about professional quality. So when I had a break in my engineering career I decided to attend Brooks Institute of Photography, in Santa Barbara, CA. There I finally learned exposure and depth of field. I was also introduced to the large format studio camera, which is my preference to this day. I also learned the difference between a photographer and an artist, and I knew which one I wanted to be. We also discussed, very animatedly, the difference between the found image and the created image. I also know which side of this debate I stand on. I love to shoot in the studio; however, I enjoy shooting outside even more. Some would say that outside you shoot the found image and inside you create the image. I disagree; I think that a good artist will shoot the found image even in the studio. No matter what the camera is a form of communication, I am showing you the image that I can see, and enjoy. I hope you enjoy them too, but even if you don’t, I hope that they move you in some way. That is what art is all about.