When I first began studying photography it was classic black and white where my journey began. I had taken some photojournalism along with film history classes while in college. My personal library became crammed with coffee table books by the greats. There were books by Ansel Adams, Paul Caponigro, Edward Weston, Alfred Stieglitz, Diane Arbus, Jerry Uelsmann, Richard Avedon, Paul Strand, Robert Frank Henri Cartier -Bresson, and the list goes on and on. I cherished those moments of sitting quietly sipping coffee and turning the pages, absorbing the imagery that was in front of me.
Trips to museums to see the original works and going to lectures all helped fuel my passion to learn how to make images and work in the darkroom. Shortly after I was married in the early 1970’s, we moved to New Mexico. Living there gave me the opportunity to see where some of the famous images had been made. Taking the coffee table books along with us, my wife Susan and I would drive out to explore the landscape of our new home state. It became a sort of treasure hunt to find the exact spot where some of those iconic photographs had been made. We managed to find Moonrise over Hernandez, the Ranchos de Taos Church, the Truchas crosses, the dunes of White Sands, and many of the sacred sites in and around Georgia O’Keeffe country. I write more about my photo education in my message from the artist.
