My goal as a photographer is to create fine art prints that capture the beauty and simplicity of life and things around us. I grew up in New York City, but had lived in Florida and Utah before finally settling in North Carolina in 1983. As a photographer I'm fascinated not only by nature but also by things that will eventually be gone and forgotten - old factories, abandoned buildings, forgotten grave sites, and relics of things that were once a part of everyday life. When I'm shooting these scenes, I can see the people still there; and because it saddens me to think that what I'm seeing will someday be gone, one of my goals is to preserve those images.
Some of the earlier photos were taken with large format cameras (Cambo, Tachihara, and Wista VX), but for the last few years I have gone digital because the quality of the equipment has gotten so good that it doesn't make sense to use film any longer. Currently I'm using a Canon 5D Mark II and printing on Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Silk paper with K3 Ultrachrome pigment inks that have an archival display life of 100 years. The results are photographs with incredible detail and unsurpassed tonal range. My 30-step workflow does not include any image manipulation, only adjustments to exposure, dodging and burning, adding gradients, and, in the case of black and white, toning the final image so that it has the appearance of a platinum print. I spend at least 5 to 10 hours processing each photograph before I'm satisfied that it is the best it can be; and out of 100 photographs I take, maybe five make it to final print.
All of my images are B&W because I feel that black and white adds drama and richness to certain scenes and has the ability to evoke emotions unlike any color photograph can. When working in black and white, there's no hiding behind a color palette, no shortcuts, and no substitute for composition and visualization. What you see is what you get in all its raw beauty. I've seen plenty of beautiful color prints, but few that I would stare at again and again as I would a beautiful B&W print.