I am a retired university professor and psychotherapist who played many roles before doing photography professionally – a foster-care caseworker, a restaurant waiter and “expediter” at a fancy restaurant in New York City, a child and family therapist, a sociolinguistic researcher, a classical pianist and performer, a trauma recovery consultant in Rwanda, and an avid collector of Jon Naar’s graffiti serigraphs. I love images, think in images, and create images. Much of my photography crosses boundaries into music and painting. This is natural for me and represents who I am.
My undergraduate and graduate studies in anthropology drove my curiosity about people and cultures different from mine, and I took every advantage to travel widely. I studied Mandarin in China, Spanish in Costa Rica and Hebrew in Israel with my camera always by my side. I would rouse myself predawn on chilly mornings to see the mysterious fog blanketing the valleys and mountains in Orvieto Italy. I walked trails in the Golan Heights where snow covered the highest peaks year-round and I explored the Druze markets found there with beautifully crafted glass and stoneware. I travelled into remote areas of Rwanda where genocide survivors labored all day farming with their children who were forever hungry and malnourished. These experiences not only educated me about other cultures and worldviews but made me more aware of the needs of others and my own male white privilege. My sensibilities deepened and transformed me into the person I am today. My lived experiences enter into my photography – consciously and unconsciously.
What I love about photography is that images take on new and undiscovered meanings over time. My hope is that you might find something in my photography that speaks to your experiences now and in the years to come.