In 2010, I traveled to Northern California for a camping trip. One day, I picnicked in a hollow core redwood whose interior contained remarkable patterns. I made a few pictures inside that tree and was stunned by the results. This would become “Oculus.”
I received my B.F.A. from R.I.T. in 1977 where I studied with and assisted John Pfahl in his seminal work, Altered Landscapes. I have worked as a photographer since the 1970’s at which time, I began exhibiting works in color - both landscapes and portraits, entitled, Modern Mythologies.
My first solo exhibition was presented at the International Museum of Photography in 1978. In the late 1970s I was represented by Sonnabend Gallery. In 1979 I took advantage of a full scholarship at the University of Arizona where I earned an M.F.A. in 1981. During my years in Arizona, I was influenced by Native American cultures and began working with archaeologists and anthropologists, notably on the book/exhibition, Maya Treasures of an Ancient Civilization.
In 1985 I was hired to launch a photo program at Drexel University. My interests in anthropology led to projects photographing antiquities in Latin America and Asia as well as recording remnants of these expressions found in the rituals of trance. This documentary work led to landscape photographs of forests as a manifestation of pantheistic energy. Patterning found in tribal art and textiles became the framework from which ideas about the natural world would emerge in my most recent works, "Drawn from Nature" and "Oculus".
In 1987 I traveled to Haiti to photograph Voodoo Priests and Trance, published in Aperture Magazine. In 1988 I began photographing objects from the Nasher collections and traveling to remote regions in Indonesia to document their ceremonially use. I spent the next eight years surrounded by Indonesian art and ceremonial Trance which sensitized me to patterns in the forest that became the inspiration for the series, Forest, published by Nazraeli Press in 2005. In 2005, The Southeast Museum of Photography commissioned from me new works for an exhibition and catalog; that work became in 2009, Signs and Wonders.
In 2010, I traveled to Northern California for a camping trip. One day, I picnicked in a hollow core redwood whose interior contained remarkable patterns. I made a few pictures inside that tree and was stunned by the results. This would become “Oculus.”
I have exhibited extensively over the years in solo and group exhibitions - in galleries and museums. Amongst my publications are: Maya, Treasures of an Ancient Civilization, Abrams, 1985; Forest, a monograph, Nazraeli Press, 2005; Signs and Wonders, The Southeast Museum of Photography, 2011. My most current project, “Oculus” was awarded the Simon Guggenheim Foundation Award in 2015.