I fell in love with photography in the English fall of 1981. Upon receiving an Olympus OM1 from my Swiss aunt I went walking through the woods of Beaconsfield, a small town an hour outside of London, and there exposed my first roll of black and white film. And with my first subject before me, the immovable trees and the ever-shifting light, I fell down the rabbit hole of exploration and found a deeper and gratifying understanding of both my inner and outer worlds. By paying careful attention to the subject and the light that reflects from, surrounds and permeates the subject, the moment, the movement; photography has heightened my perceptions and it is how I have come to know better the world around me.

From walks in the countryside, to the city, then to work with Arnold Newman and Richard Avedon, after having graduated from Parsons School of Design in 1989, I forged my own way, making portraits and exhibiting in galleries in New York City, Philadelphia and eventually in Puerto Rico where I have lived for 20 years.

My photographs typically have two cohorts within the same image, two main areas of concentration, the subject and the light. What I look for and hope to create within a photograph is a kind of visual clarity, beauty and strength; a sounding visual resonance, something bold but delicately rendered. The subject that is found within my work is secondary to the light and bold shadow, delination of form found within the pictoral frame. Light and its absence are my subject.

My preferences and tastes operate within a wide range of exposure and experiences, so from stylistic Penn and early Avedon to the tough kinds of photo journalism we see with more frequency in Europe to the staged performance spaces in today’s contemporary photo scene. All of it grabs my attention. I could spend equal hours looking at John Baldessari, Steichen, Lewis Hine (in particular), Alfred Stieglitz, Francesca Woodman, Robert Frank, Sally Mann, Emmet Gowin, Cindy Sherman, Tseng Kwong Chi, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Gursky, Ruff, Struth, Nobuyoshi Araki, Laurie Simmons. I spent a lot of time, while living in London, Paris and New York – everywhere I have ever traveled, in galleries and museums, just looking.

Photography has probably accounted for 50% of my viewing time. Painting and sculpture helped me in a more direct way with my own work. Eva Hesse, Diebenkorn, Brice Marden, Franz Kline, Clifford Still, Rothko, Motherwell, Pollock, Noguchi, Louise Nevelson; the American abstract expressionists have all informed my eyes. I was deeply moved the first time I saw the work at the Marlborough Gallery in New York of sculptor Madelena Abakanwicz. Richard Tuttle, Lorna Simpson, Micha Ullman, Moshe Kupferman; these names, the longer list withheld, account for how I see and work today. I take the viewing of art and images seriously. And better than that, within the act and fullness of looking there is so much fun.