"Personal History" examines the lives of my two sons, Ben and Sam—a span covering 30 years. I used a 1950’s Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera, which I tried by chance. I fell in love with the square negative that replaced the rectangle I had known. The imperfections in the imagery reflect the inevitable flaws in our lives: the soft colors are about love and affection, and the constant square creates firm, fixed boundaries, suggesting a steady, uniform quality that we all need in our lives. At centerstage are my sons who we can watch mature from an early age to becoming young men.
I am one of few photographers who is also a published photo-historian, a combination that influences the photographs I make. While traveling, or at home, I strive to capture cultures, people, and landscapes to express my experiences during the day or night. I use different kinds of cameras from digital to film to create and record my imagery, often moving from the literal to the impressionistic, while still maintaining the reality of what I saw. "Personal History", photographs of my sons made with a 1950’s Brownie Hawkeye Camera, is due out in November 2020, published by Daylight Books.
