Etude in Birch #2 Print

Hello. I'm a High School Philosophy, English, and sometimes Special Education teacher living in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. I became interested in photography in my twenties and after leaving it for a couple of decades, started picking up cameras again around 2006. I shoot both digital and film images, occasionally with a 1930s Zeiss Super Ikonta that my father bought in England during WW 2. I still have the bill for it, along with letters he wrote home about the hunt for a camera and the discovery of the Zeiss in a shop on Bond Street. Although slightly damaged in a fall a few years ago, it is mechanically and optically sound. I use some old Minoltas inherited from a very talented Uncle, and an old Hasselblad, purchased with the proceeds of my Mother's estate. When using this equipment, I am very aware of the debts I owe these people. I don't claim to have any profound aesthetic vision. However, I am mindful that a photograph, from the moment the shutter clicks, is a message from the past, and I am concerned with the loss of the past, especially of the deep, poetic, mythic roots we have in the land. A portion (10%) of all my profits will be donated to the City of Barrie Youth Ambassadors program to help economically disadvantaged students take part in a very special educational opportunity called the Global Perspectives Program. I am married and the father of three children.