My Photo-History

How I got here

I have been taking pictures since I was 14 years old (that was 1969) when my mother gave me an old Argus C-3 "Brick" and my Uncle Horace--a weekend wedding photographer--taught me how to process and print in his home darkroom. Our deal was: if I bought my own film (in those days 79 cents for 36 exposures of Plus-X or Tri-X black-and-white), he would pay for all the chemicals and paper I could waste--er, use.

What a chance to experiment! I did solarizations, paper negatives, selective masking, texture filters: all the techniques I could find. I shot hundreds of rolls throughout high school and into college.

Then, in about 1977, disaster struck: a crazed roommate found a briefcase he liked and threw out the contents--every negative I had ever shot. If you have done this sort of work, you know that you don't really make 3-1/2 x 5 proof prints for every roll, so virtually everything I had was lost save a handful of prints.

But I've caught up. Since that time I've done slides, 4 x 5 sheet film, handcoloring, Polaroid manipulations, cyanotypes, Van Dyke browns, Polaroid transfers--and now digital. I have lugged a 4 x 5 camera, tripod, film holders, and changing bags into the wilds of New Mexico; hung around on the set of a TV show with my 35mm; and walked from Tokyo to Kyoto with an SLR-type digital. For those of you who don't speak camera lingo, this means: I've made a lot of pictures in a lot of ways in a lot of places.

My main goal has always been not so much to "dazzle" with technique as to create images that express the essence of the subject.

So here I am in China. My camera is a Minolta Dimage 7 with a non-interchangeable 28-200 zoom; my back-up is a Canon Powershot A-300. And my "darkroom" is Photoshop 6.0. In other words I am out on a limb, working without a net... I left my film camera at home. Ever since I met a pro who said that even the venerable National Geographic is sending its shooters out with high-res digital, I just don't see the point in shooting film. It's more expensive, it's a hassle to develop and store, it's very environmentally unfriendly. Sure, I'd like to be doing those "alternative techniques" here in China, but with a digital camera and Photoshop, the possibilities for playing around are... endless.

[NB: I have had many digital SLRs since I wrote this, all Canons. But now I usually just use my phone.]

So that's my story. The images here are mostly from the more recent periods and places in my life; I've brought my Japan slides (some scanned, some in slide form), and of course everything I've ever shot that's digital. (I do have a few shots from the Southwest as well.) Some are "straight shots" and some have been manipulated; the accompanying notes will tell you which is which.

[2023: Now I live in the Philippines; all of my slides and negatives are with me, and I'm hankering to "bring them to light."]

Enjoy.

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