Mixed Media
By incorporating elements from the photograph’s setting, I am not only adding a three dimensional tactile perspective to the photograph as well as other sensory attributes, but creating a bridge between the natural environment of the photograph and the artificial interpretation of the photographer.

Earth, stone, grass, leaves, timber     these elements link my rendition of what I encountered or experienced to the actuality of what I photographed, and remind viewers that there is a living composition existing independently of my rendition.

 The objects I incorporate in my mixed media pieces are usually from the actual setting photographed, but in some cases, where collecting samples of the scene is prohibited (as in some national parks and monuments) I substitute the same elements collected from other venues.  If I think additional sensory elements are needed for a rendition, I may include an audio or video clip.

Photography
In my photography I am striving to reveal, or illuminate — in the manner of iconographers — the character and essential truth of the place, or person, or being, or phenomena that I encounter.  This can involve quite ordinary objects or circumstances, such as a houseplant on a living room stand, or more exceptional encounters, such as wild horses in the badlands. In either situation the key decision is to choose the approach that will best convey the truth of my encounter — which is to say a series of choices before the shutter is triggered:  angle of view, available light or supplementary light, light direction, lens focal length, center of interest, color or gray scale, depth of field, shutter speed, and sometimes how the captured image will be used.  If it is a transitional situation, or time is short, I may elect to use my 35mm digital SLR in lieu of the medium format film camera.  Or if time allows, both. The decision could be a few seconds or a few minutes. But it is one I make before snapping the shutter button.
In my view, photography as a fine art pursuit is an intentional act, one requiring research, reflection, practice, and review.  For any of our great image makers—Edward Weston, Man Ray, Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, Cindy Sherman, and even Henri Cartier Bresson, the intuitive photographer—photography  is an ongoing process of discovery, each encounter informing their  approach to the next.  It is a discipline of formation, both of the art and the photographer.

My subject matter varies—people at work, at worship, at play; cultural infrastructure; esoteric arrangements; intersections of human society and nature; the processes of nature.   The images I create may be presented unchanged from the work of the camera, or they may be enhanced or manipulated in the darkroom or with software.  My goal is not to simply reproduce what I saw, but to draw out the essence of the subject and my experience.