. . . the blog

The Quotations I put on the Homepage here are touchstones for why I choose to pursue the life of an artist. Mark Rothko said “I don’t express myself in my paintings. I express my non-self.” I think artists in any realm can relate to a prevalent misunderstanding of expressionism that mistakenly assumes a real experience is merely a premeditated assertion of the mind. Through my own artistic process I’ve learned that when my work is preconceived the quality of the work is compromised. I’ve also noticed this can happen in degress when I have failed to successfully abandon my ego. Most everyone...

Artist statements that accompany award winning photographs often include words to the effect that “No Photoshop or post-production editing was used.” The disclaimer reinforces the idea that manipulating photography is akin to cheating; that only purist photography honors the years of experience required to hone a technical skill, not to mention the accumulation of expensive equipment. I would say, to the contrary, that any artistic practice that captures light with a camera and presents or projects it onto paper or other substrates is photography by definition. There are many great examples...

I’ve adopted the term Photo Expressionism to label one unique and painterly style of my photographic artwork. Because it is often extremely manipulated, some have said it is too different in style from my straightforward photography. I’ve heard that it confuses “my brand”, not to mention offends the purist bias in many corners of the photography world that insists true photography only happens in the camera. The darkroom used to be included in that caveat as well, but with the near disappearance of film, even stalwarts have mostly let that one slide. A recent blurb in The New Yorker...