I’m one of those lucky people who found their passion early in life. In 1999 at the age of 12 and at the earnest peer-pressuring of my best friend, I took an elective photography class at my middle school. It was 35mm black and white film. I got my hands on an SLR camera for the first time and developed and printed my own film in the darkroom. I was smitten from day one.
It’s been a long time since I first fell in love with photography but I’m even more enthusiastic about it today than I was all those years ago. While my passion remains unchanged, my approach has evolved immensely. For nearly all of my personal work I now utilize a hybrid workflow in which I capture the image on film (in a variety of medium and large formats) which I then digitize for color correction and print.
My early influences were the icons of nature photography - Thomas Mangelsen, Galen Rowell, Art Wolfe. Fiery sunsets and vivid colors were my muse and I was proud to call myself a landscape photographer. Years later I discovered Gregory Crewdson, Andreas Gursky, and Julius Shulman - photographers who continue to influence my work today. I no longer consider myself a landscape photographer, but neither an architectural photographer. I suppose I'm somewhere in between, which is fine by me.
The incredible resurgence of analog film photography along with the ever-increasing popularity of YouTube has been a driving force in my professional success and my continued passion for the craft. Through the wonderful community around film photography, I have been lucky to meet other passionate photographers, reach new audiences with my work, share my knowledge with aspiring shooters, and do my part to push the community and craft forward.