Bitterness at Summer's End Photograph

I was born in 1976 in Norristown, Pennsylvania in the United States. I am an photographer living in the Greater Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area. My initial interest in art was sparked in my early teens when I would borrow for long lengths of time a fantasy art book owned by my older brother; from it I taught myself the basics of drawing and gained an appreciation of vision and other-worldliness in art. While in college I was introduced to the camera as an artistic tool and began a love affair with photography thats lasted nearly a decade and a half. I currently live and make my art in southeastern Pennsylvania.

I am an artist, not a documentarian. My work doesnt end at the snap of the shutter the resultant image is like a sketch or underpainting. Its my job to take it the rest of the way, to develop it to the point of communication, clarity, wonder, beauty: a finished piece of art. I dont consult Muses, nor do I consider ultimate questions as I photograph; though I am often at my most spiritual when I shoot or process an image. But that means that I am indulging in the joy of experimentation - that I play, perceive, explore, that a bit of who I am solar-flares into my art, my photographs.

I make my decisions based upon wonder as an emotion. To me, a piece of art should convey impressiveness and cleverness in its form and in its message. This attitude informs my work. My goal is to give the viewer something to dream about, and I shoot with this in mind.

Much of my newer work has taken an experimental turn. I am trying to push what a camera can do and what people normally expect of a photograph. I have shifted to the use of alternative lo-fi and experimental lenses, reflections, intentional camera movement and digital effects, to create images that are impressionistic or abstract. Regardless of realism or lack of it, I try to create with a sense of romance that magic is still possible.