EDUCATION
MASTER OF FINE ARTS DEGREE
in Photography. Cranbrook Academy of Art. Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
BACHELOR OF FINE ARTS DEGREE
in Photographic Illustration. Rochester Institute of Technology. Rochester, New York Summa Cum Laude with highest honors, top of the class. Included independent study The International Museum of Photography.
Colorado State University-Pueblo. 3 years.
WORKSHOPS
Photoshop CS3 with Ben Willmore; Adobe InDesign with Taz Tally. Denver; Adobe Photoshop with Bert Monroy. Denver; Adobe Photoshop with John Paul Caponigro. CSUP; Robert McKee's Story Structure Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. North Hollywood, California; Friends of Photography. Carmel, California with Ansel Adams, Brett Weston, Paul Caponigro and others.
TEACHING
Community College of Aurora 2004-date. Initially at the Colorado Film School teaching: Introduction to Film Production, The Documentary and Gems of the Cinema classes. Since Fall Semester 2004 in the Art Department teaching: Photography 1,2,3, Digital Photography, Zone System Photography, Art History and Art Appreciation online. Aurora; Colorado State University-Pueblo 1978, 80-81, 2001-04; Pueblo Community College 1994-2002. Learning Tree University 1991-93. Chatsworth, California; Community College of Denver 1979; Colorado Institute of Art 1978-79; Arapahoe Community College 1978; Cranbrook Academy of Art 1977. Graduate teaching assistantship in Photography.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
President Tamarack Productions Inc.; Studio TV Cameraman/Floor director. KOAA-TV, NBC affiliate; Custom color/black & white printer produced custom work for all the film studios, TV networks and other clients including NASA, utilizing black & white, Type C color negative printing, and occasional Ilfochrome Classic, up to 16x20. Colorhouse Photo Laboratories, Burbank, California; Newspaper Photographer & Lab Technician. Star Journal & Chieftain; Documentary Still Photographer. Colorado Highway Department. Did black & white and large format color documentation of Eisenhower Tunnel construction.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
The first time I saw an image emerge in the developing tray I was hooked. Around this time I happened upon the work of Ansel Adams and was awed by the incredible quality, the feeling of light his prints contained. I was fortunate to know Ansel, to visit his home and darkroom. Ansel once mentioned to me that “Steiglitz told me light was the most important thing in a photograph and that it should be handled delicately.” Over time, I have known others who follow this tradition: Brett Weston, Paul Caponigro and in a more abstract vein Minor White and Aaron Siskind. I’m still in awe over what a direct photograph can be and my artistic roots arise from this “straight” tradition of photography. For my finest work, I use the Zone System and previsualization. Most of my work is large format and archivally printed. Much of my recent work is digital as are all of the color images on this page.
I have a dichotomy in my photographic work which has persisted through decades of photographing. First, I have a great interest in the purely visual elements in a subject, almost form for its own sake, regardless of content, usually flat and linear--abstracted images. Pure forms which are there for all to see if one is sensitive enough. I often photograph the way something can look, as opposed to the way it does look or as Minor White once told me “Photograph things not only for what they are, but also for what else they are.” Beauty presented in a way which often cannot be readily recognized, for amazing things aren’t always recognizable for what they “really are”, notches on a rail look like abstract human forms, scratched paint look like clouds or a railroad snow scoop simply is a beautifully balanced pure image.
Second, I like images of recognizable subject matter which involve the viewer in the “severe beauty”, the visual richness of the scene, some of which are almost romantic. I use photography’s powers of revelation to present a reality which existed before the camera, but also more, a super reality.
I very much like Hegel’s definition of art: “the sensuous is spiritualized, i.e. the spiritualized appears in sensuous form.” Brett Weston once told me that he couldn’t advise me to do anything differently, that I was on the right track and not to be deterred from presenting pure images. I try to achieve humanistic images that speak to the emotions through natural phenomenon and change, timeless images of temporal forces.
Aaron Siskind once stated that Steiglitz bequeathed to photographers a tradition of “simple procedure and a rather uninvolved aesthetic”. I follow these tenants as opposed to manipulation and “over” conceptualization even when I’m working digitally. Minor once wrote to me “I see no reason to have an intellectually oriented aim for making pictures.” Paul Caponigro wrote me “Photography is taking new trends - and there is something right about that. It should, however, not totally forget or neglect the older traditions.” In the final analysis, I like Schopenhauer’s view of art as “the higher ascent . . . (that) more perfectly, with intention and intelligence, and therefore may be called, in the full significance of the word, the flower of life.”
HONORS/GRANTS
Pueblo Arts Council Excellence in the Arts Award; National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington, D.C., Colorado Humanities, Denver;
Ford Foundation (through Cranbrook), Detroit; Professional Photographers of America (through RIT), Oak Park, Ill.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; The Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Denver Art Museum; University of South Carolina - The Digital Eye Sumter, South Carolina; Texas Tech University International Cultural Center Lubbock, Texas; Washington Gallery of Photography Bethesda, Maryland; Rocky Mountain Regional Juried Photography Exhibition Manitou Springs; Louisville Art Association, Louisville; Colorado State Fair Fine Arts Exhibitions Pueblo; Blue Spruce Gallery Florence; Photography Centennial Celebration - 100 Years at RIT Rochester, New York; Otero Junior College La Junta; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center; One Man Show - Sangre de Cristo Art Center; Chester County Art Association West Chester, Pennsylvania; Fine Arts League of Southeastern Colorado La Junta; Boulder Art Center Boulder; Gilpin County Arts Association Central City; One Man Show - Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, New York; Scarab Club Detroit, Michigan; Colorado Celebration of the Arts Denver; Western Maryland College Westminister, Maryland; Continental Divide Arts Association Fort Collins,CO
GALLERY REPRESENTATION
Lacewing Arts & Flowers Gallery, Aurora
http://lacewingarts.com/Webpages/about_us_.htm;
John Deaux Gallery, Pueblo
http://johndeauxartgallery.com/
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Encyclopedia of Photography 3rd edition, 1993. Contributing editor. Focal Press, London; View Camera Technique 5th, 1986; 6th, 1993 & 7th, 1999 editions. Eight photographs. Focal Press, London; Who’s Who: in America 55th, 2001 through 62nd 2008 editions; in the World 17th, 2000 through 25th, 2008 editions; in the West 27th edition, 2000; of Emerging Leaders in America 3rd edition, 1991; in Entertainment 1st, 1988 through 3rd, 1998 editions. Biography. Marquis, Macmillan Directory, New Providence, NJ. Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers 7th, 2002 through 11th, 2007 editions. Biography. Educational Communications Inc., Lake Forrest, IL; Photographic Materials & Processes 1st, 1986; (Basic) 2nd edition, 2000; Five photographs. Focal Press, London (also in Italian edition in as L' Uso Della Macchina Professional Il Castello, Milano 1993); Visual Concepts for Photographers 1st edition, 1980. Five Photographs. Hastings House, New York and Focal Press, London (also in Chinese edition 1998).
FILMS
Curse of the Blue Lights (90 min.)Director, Writer, Producer, Cinematographer and Editor. Blue Lights Partnership. Feature Invited feature: Science Fiction and Fantasy Film Festival, Rome; Zebulon Pike and the Blue Mountain (55 min.) Director, Writer, Producer, Cinematographer and Editor. Tamarack Productions Inc. Winner: CINE Golden Eagle Award (for films chosen to represent the United States in overseas film competitions) and the Certificate of Commendation from the American Association for State and Local History. Narrated by Burgess Meredith. DVD release 2006. Shown on Rocky Mountain PBS. http://zebulonpike.net ; Damon Runyon’s Pueblo (40 min.) Director, Co-writer, Cinematographer and Co-editor. National Endowment for the Humanities. Distribution: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Chicago Winner: CINE Golden Eagle Award. Shown on Rocky Mountain PBS.
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