Personal Projects
Making editorial portraits is a passion of mine that I pursue for guests in my studio and in my personal work. I often build a personal project around a location, spending days or weeks wander shooting making street portraits. My approach is from a documentary perspective, preferring not to interfere or pose an image, but moving constantly and often capturing what was occurring before me.
These projects align with my branding portraiture, building on the principle of authenticity that I bring to each image. Looking ahead a few seconds to catch moments between people and spaces. I characterize those into three different types of personal moments.
Moments of Connection
Capturing that instantaneous connection when one person passes and acknowledges another. It’s so quick and often completely unconscious, which makes it that much more transparent. A nod, a brief smile, or not… I think it speaks volumes on the person. I have to be quick to make the image before there is an awareness of the camera and the shields of self-consciousness rise.
Moments of Interaction
Photographing the often complex relationships between different people. Telltale expressions that I’ve learned to recognize before they occur.
I focused on that with 21 Days : NYC . Constantly moving through the city, I averaged 7 miles each day covering different parts of the city. Always walking, thinking about 5-10 seconds ahead, looking for interesting people and interactions, I would make my images as I moved through their space.
Moments of Introspection
Sometimes, when time and circumstances allow, I will stop moving, meet someone new and spend a moment engaging and really working towards a portrait. I did that most during my recent North by Northeast project. Shooting during a conversation creates images that are often more individual and introspective. Time slows for both of us and the results are more subtle. The Gifts From My Father Series is my current project that looks for this type of moment.
Gifts From My Father
Gifts From My Father is a personal project where I gather the stories of people with representations of gifts, both tangible and intangible that they received from their father or a father figure. I shoot their portrait and the participants are also asked to write a short passage about the gift and its meaning to them to capture the context behind their story.
21 Days : NYC
I lived in NYC, working as an editorial photographer / videographer for 10 years. That decade there defined what I am today in almost every way. After returning to Baltimore, I wanted to see how the City had evolved.
I still love NYC, visiting often but mostly for day trips and client meetings. I decided on the anniversary, I’d go back for 21 Days for a reunion to see what was new and anything else that had survived. That 21 days of Street photography resulting in thousands of portraits.
21 Days : NYC was exhibited at a solo show at the Baltimore Creative Alliance’s Amalie Rothschild Gallery.
North by Northeast (NxNe)
I traveled 3500 miles exploring a part of Eastern Canada that I’d always wanted to experience. The resulting images focus on the beautiful landscapes and amazing people I met in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and along the Cabot Trail.
4 Days in LA
The series of images from different areas around Los Angeles, CA. I love shooting on the West Coast when I can. The light is very different there, taking on an almost crystalline quality that casts everything and everyone is sharp relief.
Hampden, MD.
I lived in Hampden for a couple of years before it became cool. It’s a former mill town of small Baltimore row homes, built for the workers who created sail cloth over a century ago. There were artists, poverty and violence. But also strange kindnesses, like when someone broke into my car and lived in it for a couple of days, but didn’t take anything…
So when I was asked to shoot for the “Day in the Life of Hampden” project to celebrate the Centennial of the town, Hampden did not disappoint.
The shoot ended with a show and one of my images became the postcard for the show invitation.
No Vacation Taken
Images of a vacation that never occurred. Following the loss of a loved one and a renewed realization of opportunities lost.