What's My Story?, Buckle up...
Anyone can shoot pretty. I shoot what's true.
Who I Am
I don’t shoot to make people look good. That part is easy. I’m after the second someone stops posing, right before they remember the camera is there. Most photographers never notice it. That’s the frame I wait for.
Portraits and art are the work I care about most. I shoot boudoir when someone asks for it, but I don’t go looking for it.
I grew up around film and darkrooms, and my mother taught me the basics. The real start came when my stepmother, Louella, a photographer moving to digital, gave me her old film gear. I couldn’t have done this without it, and I’ve tried to pass that kind of generosity on ever since.
I trained at the Southeast Center for Photographic Studies, but most of what I know came after: late-night shoots, street work and gear I could barely afford. It cost me burned fingers, ruined rolls, cheap equipment held together with tape, a crashed drive, corrupted files and a lot of long nights editing. None of that shows up in the finished picture.
This is my 20th year shooting. I won’t pretend it’s all been good.
What Keeps Me Coming Back
My work has appeared in Der Greif, USA Today, Halogénure, The New York Times and a few other publications. I’m proud of that, and I earned it, but bylines aren’t why I pick up a camera.
If you want pictures that stick with people, not ones that look fine for a week and then disappear, we should talk. I don’t take everyone who asks. I work with people who are willing to show up as themselves and give me an hour of something real. No filters, no forced smile, no posing for the algorithm.
I’ve been at this long enough to know what I’m looking for, and I find it almost every time.
