Photography
Photography has been a serious passion of mine for nearly 25 years, serving as a canvas for both personal and professional pursuits, although more often than not, it's been a deeply personal journey. My entrée into this captivating world occurred at the age of 16 when I inherited my late father's old Canon film camera. This particular inheritance ignited a lifelong fascination.
As a high school graduation gift, my grandfather then gifted me my very first modern SLR, a Canon Elan 7e. It would only be a few years later that I would acquire my very first digital camera in the early days of that technology. In those early years, my heart gravitated towards several particular subjects: portraiture, the enigmatic allure of abandoned urban landscapes (a passion I still hold, though time to pursue it has become a rare luxury), and the timeless beauty of the female form—fine art nudes, in particular, held a special place in my artistic exploration which has now persisted for over two decades.
Over time, my photographic pursuits naturally evolved. Sometimes, it was a matter of professional commissions that expanded my horizons. At other times, it was simply the inexhaustible curiosity of an artist, seeking to capture the world in new and intriguing ways.
Photography, in its essence, holds a profound role in the tapestry of history. It is not merely the art of capturing moments; it is the art of preserving time itself. The images we create today become the legacy of tomorrow, serving as windows into bygone eras, reflecting the evolution of society, culture, and humanity's ceaseless quest for expression. Thus, my photographic odyssey is a testament to this timeless medium's power—to distill memories into moments, to transform the ordinary into art, and to bear witness to the ever-unfolding narrative of existence.
Fashion & Conceptual
My passion for shooting bare women runs parallel with my love for capturing fashion, quirky personalities and settings, usually with a vintage or nostalgic slant. I exploit the scene, the clothing and the colors of both to make these images about so much more than just the person in the photo. It’s rarely just about the person in the photo which is why I often use a wide angle lens. I like to tell stories— broad, vague, and curious stories with unanswered questions and much left up to interpretation. Like music, we all tend to project our own lived experiences on to photography and artwork - to see these things through our own lenses, not just mine, and I have always cherished that.
Food
I haven’t had the opportunity to engage in much food and cuisine photography but I have thoroughly enjoyed the shoots I’ve been hired for in this realm. It’s so wildly different from shooting people but still equally challenging.
Kiss Me
In the first few years of our relationship, my partner and I thought it would be cute to capture portraits of us kissing in all the places we visited. Inevitably, we missed a few and then eventually stopped doing it entirely, because well,…life.
Love
I truly love capturing families and people in love. It is literally our reason for being here in this strange inexplicable and painfully short existence. These are little frozen moments of big love in time
Nature & Organic
I view my botanical photography as the opposite of my fashion and nude photography in which I use a wide angle lens and capture a wide, zoomed-out scene with most of the setting in focus. My organic body of work is all about zooming way in to tiny things and using lens filters to create greater depths of field, ensuring very few parts of the subject matter are actually in focus. I also manipulate color and lighting to enhance the mood and/or atmosphere of each shot.
Travel
The fact that I can rarely take a trip without bringing my camera along to document the whole thing might as well be proof that my camera, in many cases in my life, has become an additional appendage I feel completely lost without. Do my eyes even work without a viewfinder in front of them? Do I see things the same way if I’m not recording them somehow?
Portraits
Portraits are special and remain one of my favorite subject matters. I am inspired by the challenge of helping to reveal someone’s soul in a simple photograph.
“All my images are self-portraits, even when I'm not in them.” ― Nuno Roque
Urban Exploration
Urban exploration: truly one of my first passions that began in my teenage years and thus, one of the first things I decided I wanted to capture on film. There is a sadness and eeriness in abandoned buildings, homes especially and the ability to capture those things in pictures is perhaps not as easy as it may seem. I experience feelings of both voyeurism and longing in these spaces, curious about the people who left them behind, often with so many of their things still sitting untouched inside. The spaces themselves, a shadow of what once was.
Product
Like food photography, product photography is not something I’ve done a lot of in my career but I have thoroughly enjoyed the projects I’ve been hired for and have very much appreciated the opportunities I’ve been granted to capture someone else’s work or passion (or both in the best scenarios!)
iPhone
Before smartphones, I never could have imagined that we’d eventually have the ability to take pretty damn good photos with our cell phones. Having a phone always in my pocket only perpetuated my compulsion to photograph everything. This category has some of my favorites—out of the thousands and thousands—I’ve taken over the years.
Women/Nude
To visit my website for my Oklahoma-based photo studio, The Steamhouse, click here.
I’ve always been drawn to the darker side of life and in much of my photographic body of work, this shows, especially in my nude work. But I’ve also always found hidden beauty in those dim recesses. It could be something hard-wired in me from birth. It could be some of the more difficult experiences that were thrust upon me growing up. Most likely, it’s the combination of the two. I’ve always truly valued any difficulty or tragedy I’ve endured because I believe it gives me a respect and appreciation for life I wouldn’t otherwise have. It also gives me a greater capacity for love and happiness. The human experience is such an eclectic one. Dark can be light, pain can be comforting, ugly can be beautiful. You have to have x-ray vision in a way. You have to carefully peel away the layers of wear and deprivation to fully admire and appreciate the WHY. To me, a scarred person is a wise one, an understanding one, an empathetic one and a beautiful one. There’s a depth in darkness that simply doesn’t exist in the light.
I prefer to shoot women and I usually prefer they be my friends. I have had the tendency to be rather shy my entire life and have a hard time relaxing around strangers or conveying to them exactly what I want. I have a rapport with people close to me that I often can’t achieve with a stranger. The close relationships in my life are invaluable and the accompanying trust even more so. And I think that shows in the end result.
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