Iriduim Shallows - Limited Edition 2 of 25 Photograph

I’ve always been an explorer. As a young boy, I would set off on expeditions – none of them very far from home - and come back, having survived to tell the tale, and enjoy describing the new and “undiscovered” places I had found. My recollection and recounting of these places was highly coloured by a vivid imagination, fueled by stories I had read of explorers and adventurers like Robinson Crusoe and Thor Heyerdahl. Star Trek had given me permission to "go where no man had gone before". As a means of bringing back the evidence - I took up photography. At the age of nine I set up a darkroom in the household bathroom. I quickly discovered that a “straight” modernist record did not convey the heightened perception of these first time experiences. I have spent the rest of my life searching for the essence of wilderness, to decipher its visual language, to reveal the dialogue I sense between elements of land, sea, sky and beyond. Doing so has helped me find my own essence and purpose. I have joined that greater conversation and found a sense of connectedness, peace and sanctuary there. I take Alan Alda's advice when I go into the more literal wilderness. "You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself." Alan Alda. Now that I’m older, the things I have learned and absorbed have opened the way for travels of pure imagination. In my Terra Incognita series, I recognize those familiar landscape elements in the light, and reflections of a piece of glass. I record serene impressions of a parallel reality – the ultimate place of escape and refuge. In recent times I have begun to write poetry inspired by my images, bridging the languages of the visual, the verbal and the subconscious. I encourage you to engage in your own conversation with my works, photographic and painted - to participate in the process and discover layers of meaning – to become explorers of your own introvert and extrovert worlds.