My own passion for photography began not long after my grandmother presented me with a “Kodak” on my tenth birthday. By the mid-1970s I put together darkrooms both at work and home for product and portrait photography respectively. At work the primary instruments were a Hasselblad 55 and a Besseler enlarger which also served as an elegant product camera with its super-sharp Schneider lens. In that tiny darkroom, about the size of two cloak closets, I learned to “paint with light” for the product work, which I developed there in both color and black and white. These days my digital “lightroom” is in a basement home studio. My tools are a love of the “belle image,” Leica, Nikon and Olympus cameras, Photoshop CS3 and a variety of specific applications, and a 48″ archival pigment printer, I believe that “the luminous print” is everywhere, now, always. Despite the proximity, however, our collective habituation insures that it remains devilishly elusive.

Most of the photographers whose work has taught me have crossed to that other luminous shore. The two living photographers who have inspired me the most are David Spear and George DeWolfe.