Profile

At age three I was aware of clouds passing across the sun as I lay in the gravel driveway. By four, I insulated myself behind the detached garage amongst towering golden canna lilies. Nestled in the rear dash, I stargazed from my dad’s Chrysler at age seven and chased sunsets from the suburbs out toward the Katy Prairie of Texas at age sixteen.

I graduated high school in 1975, took a year break before college, and after a stint in retail, worked in an office as an editorial assistant. More than a year passed when I realized I was already in the grind. I quit my job and headed west to California in the autumn of 1977, but not before I purchased a camera with the conviction of photographing the beauty of the state.

In California, I was in my element. I was inspired. I was transformed. I found my passion. Upon returning to Houston three months later and processing thousands of frames, I realized I had a pretty good eye.

I worked another office job, during which time I learned the basics of my craft and found myself drawn to photographing people. Upon entering an image in The Houston Post Father’s Day Photo Contest, I won second place, had a byline and was paid $75.00. At that definitive moment, I began a career in photography, working from 1978-1981 for Houston Breakthrough newspaper.

As a self-taught, freelance photographer and lover of music, I documented the music scene of Houston, Austin and Dallas throughout most of the eighties and early nineties, shooting for major dailies, radio stations, record companies and the SXSW Music & Media Conference as a staff photographer. In 1986 I moved to Austin and photographed for Rolling Stone, Texas Monthly and many bands and solo artists including B.B. King, Lucinda Williams, Ronnie Lane, Alejandro Escovedo, Joe Ely, Robert Plant and Johnny Cash.

After relocating back to Houston in 1988, I became involved in the AIDS crisis and photographed for various AIDS organizations including The Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, where my images appeared worldwide in magazines, newspapers, brochures and posters. My client list during the next twenty years is varied, ranging from Coca Cola North America, The Houston Chronicle, Baylor College of Medicine and The Methodist Hospital System, to name a few. I have won industry awards, had numerous commissioned portraits and have shown in galleries, including two sanctioned Fotofest exhibitions in 2008.

I have had the unique opportunity to indulge in the joy and beauty of breaking through barriers and creating not just a portrait, but a deeply shared experience. A photojournalist at heart, I approach photography with a storyteller’s eye, intent on creating a mood. My purpose is to provide meaningful images in a journalistic and artistic style.

At this juncture, I have come full circle. I create artful nature imagery for private and commercial spaces. A current installation, The Methodist Hospital System’s Wayfinding Project, is a navigation tool which reaches throughout the various buildings of the hospital’s main campus corridors in The Texas Medical Center.

Self expression is at the heart of my passion and chosen career path of photography. I am once again chasing the sun, gazing at the moon and capturing a rain drop on the petal of a lily as I immerse myself in the spirit of the wild, natural world.