Initially, my passion for storytelling began in the early mid 1980s discovering photography processes after my parents gave me their Kodak Instamatic camera. Just as my sophomore year of high school began in 1987 I began to deep dive into darkroom processes with film development and printing using enlargers that carried me once a semester per school year until graduation in 1990. Because of this, I began building a focus behind the lens earning a Certificate of Merit presented to me by the University Of Iowa qualifying me as a finalist on the national stage of the arts with the Scholastic National Student Art Exhibition in New York earning me a scholarship to Savannah College of Art and Design as I approached graduation in 1990.
Arguably, I found myself at the Hawkeye Institute of Technology after high school studying photography for a year and a semester leaving the campus and stepping away from photography at the beginning of 1992 to pursue a minute as a record shop clerk, warehousing and logistics with a music instrument catalog supply chain, slamming two years of audio engineering into five weeks, getting married to a marathon runner — University of Iowa graduate, and jumping back on the BMX racing national circuit for two years after leaving my goals of becoming a professional rider when I was 15 due to health issues with my spine.
Consequently, to the decade ending — the year 2000 began to creep in and my life rotated. I had come full circle and found myself working full time for Northwest Sports Photography next to Nike World Headquarters as a film splicer and printer at night beginning in 2001 while taking day classes at Portland Community College and then transferring to the Graphic Design program with an emphasis on Interactive Web Design at Portland State University in 2003. Graduating in early 2008 with a Bachelor of Arts.
To wrap things up, I had reignited my creative visual edge of storytelling. I picked up the first DSLR Canon EOS Digital Rebel kit with a EFS 18 – 55 mm lens while at Portland State my sophomore year and began a deconstruction of the exposure triangle while taking on this new animal called digital photography.
As a result, after years of focusing on front end engineering and design I find myself as COVID was ending wanting to take my own photographic vision behind the lens to the next level as a fine art photographer to see where my journey as a storyteller through optics can take me. As a result, this online portfolio is a new beginning evolved from past passions and success that I never should have let go of.
As always, thank you for taking a minute of your time to view my vision and the importance of my work.