mYeYe ArT

My mother tells me that I was always an observer. As a child, I would sit perfectly still for hours, without talking, without moving anything but my eyes, and just watch. This need to observe has guided me my whole life. It has taken me to Washington’s San Juan Islands to photograph whales, to the Bering Sea aboard a Japanese trawler fishing vessel , and to Mexico in search of the Humpbacks. It has taken me to the mountains outside Los Angeles, and to my home in Gretna, Louisiana, across the river from that observer’s paradise, New Orleans and many places across the U.S.

After college, and armed with an oceanography degree and a manual Pentax, I headed to Friday Harbor, Washington, to participate in an ongoing 25 year photographic study of killer whales. It was here, boating through the San Juan Islands in search of Orcas, that I realized the true power of photography. I grasped its ability to capture beauty and mystery, and then in turn, deliver this experience to others. I was hooked. My camera became my companion, my journal, my memories, recording my view of the world.

After sojourns to Alaska, Mexico, and many points in between, the dangers and seasonal aspect of most jobs I could find in oceanography began to make me think that as much as I loved the sea, and traveling, and as exhilarating as it was to photograph a humpback whale exploding out of the water, what I needed was a less nomadic existence. I moved near Los Angeles, returned to school, and took a job in a high end photography lab working as an apprentice under a master printer, Robert Cavalli. Working in the lab gave me the freedom to experiment with different processes, toners, and techniques, under experienced tutelage, and ideas began to germinate.

I bought a house 80 miles from Los Angeles, and every day I’d hop on the train and pass through all these small towns and cities on the way into L.A to work. Each of these towns was unique. Each had it’s own story to tell. I wanted to capture this vision as I experienced it. The view from the window of the speeding train was filled with overlapping images, blending the cityscape together into a fast moving panoramic.

I developed a technique I call "Crossings", which are multiple image photographs created using traditional film. Several scenes of a specific city, region, landscape, or neighborhood are blended together, and the result is a photograph that shows the journey through the place. I want the viewer to feel like they are walking through, or remembering their visit there. Because the images are black and white, the old and the new exist in a timeless space of memory and nostalgia.

This vision has caught on. I’ve been awarded  International Photography Awards, and gained commissions from West Jefferson Hospital in Louisiana, as well as a public art commission for the Gretna courthouse. They have hung in Denver International airport and the Barrett Art Center in New York. I was one of 30 chosen out of approximately 8000 as a finalists for a huge atrium project at the new Indianapolis International airport. I’m attending art festivals and have participated in several group shows and have recently been accepted to participate in the Dutch Ally co-op in the French Quarter.

So far, the response has been fantastic. I’m happy that people like my work. My dream is to travel and capture cities, towns and peoples all around the world. Photography is a great ambassador, and if my photographs can show people the places and possibilities that exist and can take them away from their daily routines, then my role as an artist is complete.