Paris, 2007 - Digital Image
When I was nine years old, my parents entrusted me with our family camera; a Polaroid One Step. This began my infatuation with photography that has only become stronger over the last thirty years. Watching that square print eject from the front of the camera and develop into an image in my hand was and is a magical experience. Even now, as an adult that has learned how cameras, film, and print development work, making a photograph is still magical. Much of my aesthetic comes from those early days of Polaroids and point-and-shoot film cameras. Focus was never perfect, exposures would vary, but the images always felt right. I like to say they are a memory of a memory. Not exactly what happened nor what I can remember.
Using these types of cameras as a child gave me the advantage of going unnoticed. Friends and family would go about their business not knowing they were being photographed. This made for some wonderfully candid portraits. Much of our lives we are told to pose and smile for the camera. This reduces images to nothing more than something easily forgotten, scrolled past, or tucked into an album. I make images that people remember. Images that cause the viewer to feel something, or to question what they are seeing. My goal is to combine my desire to photograph nature with creating candid portraits to tell a story of the small piece of the world where I live, motivate people to get involved in important issues within their towns and cities, and inspire others to do the same and to effect positive change in their communities.