For me, the challenge of photography comes from its ability to allow us, and sometimes even to compel us, to confront the unexpected. I find that, no matter how much I plan and prepare, no matter how much I study a scene, there is always some element or event that will take me by surprise.
Whether it is the sudden fall of light on a building or a mountaintop, the fleeting look on the face of a stranger, or the view that appears from around the corner; whether I have endless time to compose the image or have only an instant to capture it, the unexpected poses for the photographer a unique challenge and a unique opportunity.
For all the latest technological advances and the power of digital manipulation, a photograph is still the product of the photographer's ability, through the eye and the imagination, to recognize the moment and to seize it on the spot.
Life possesses an infinite capacity for surprise that far outstrips our ability to capture. The success of a photograph lies in the degree to which it, somehow, transcends that limitation, allowing, even compelling, us to look at the world around us with a new vision.
Within these galleries are some of my more successful moments.
Exhibits, Awards and Workshops
(Ongoing) "Erg Chebbi I", "Dahlia Flames" and "Study for a Bird of Paradise" at Dell'uva Café.
October 2009 "Agra Red Fort" published in Winning Digital Photo Contests by Jeff Wignall (Lark Books, New York, 2009).
September 2009 Cole Valley Street Fair
May 2009 "Tearing Down the Wall" published in "Eingebrannte Bilder. Zum Verhältnis von kollektivem Gedächtnis, Erinnerungskultur und Politik." (Burnt Images. The Relationship among Collective Memory, Remembrance Culture and Politics), an online dossier for the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
February 2009 Participant in "Light, Gesture, Color, and Perception" led by Jay Maisel at Santa Fe Photographic Workshops.
October 2008 "Fog, With Bridge" exhibited in "Snaps of Light" by UC Berkeley Extension.
January 2008 "Elephant Ear" receives honorable mention from Apogee Photo Magazine Art in Nature contest.
December 2007 "Agra Red Fort" is a runner-up in Popular Photography's Photo of the Year contest, travel division.