"The Witness" Photograph - Limited Edition of 10

I currently own a small farm with my husband who cultivates the land. The farmhouse where we live was built in 1814 and is in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia.

I grew up in Northern Virginia. After graduating from high school, I moved to Washington, DC, where I lived for 20 years.

My journey into photography was inadvertent. I became interested in Native American traditions and ceremonies in the mid-late 1970s. In the 1980s, my interest expanded to include the Miskito, Sumo and Rama Indians of Nicaragua. In 1986, during the Contra-Sandinista war, I lived in refugee camps with Native families in Honduras near the border with Nicaragua. I observed, appreciated and documented some of the simple ways of life with a point-and-shoot camera.

Upon returning to the US, I decided to study photography. As a student at University of the District of Columbia, in conjunction with the school, I served as project coordinator of a bi-partisan photo exhibit co-sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy and Sen. John McCain in the Rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building and Rep. Dave McCurdy and Rep. Steve Gunderson in the Rotunda of the Cannon House Office Building. The exhibit was titled "Indians in the crossfire: The Miskito, Sumo and Rama peoples" and was a collection of photos by various photographers depicting daily life and traditions among Miskito, Sumo and Rama people.

I appreciate all traditions that support a simple way of life. This belief has deeply influenced my photography style. As a student, I appreciated studying the work of photographer Walker Evans and the tradition of Southern Signage Art.