I must have gotten my enthusiasm for photography from my father. He was an amateur photographer in the days when the home darkroom was a rarity. He took his camera to europe with him when he fought in the infantry in WWII. He mailed rolls of film back home to process when he returned. I have only a very few memories from the time when I was two years old, but one memory is still vivid: I was standing on a chair in my father's makeshift darkroom in the soft warm red glow of the safelight. I stuck my finger into a light socket from which he had just removed the bulb. I remember the sensation of the electricity flowing in my finger. This must have energized my early interest in photography.
My formal education in photography is limited. I owe most of my development in photography to the inspiration of my mentor, the wonderful photographer and teacher, Arthur Lazar. My academic interests, however, ran more toward physics and biology. I did attend a photography workshop at the Center of the Eye in Aspen, Colorado around 1973. I then spent several years photographing the four corner states in the southwest. I supported myself with construction jobs which allowed me to travel extensively in the southwest.
Later I moved to Cleveland Ohio where I photographed the rural people of northeastern Ohio and the neighborhoods of Cleveland. I made photographic trips to the northeastern United States and the maritime provinces of Canada. I learned palladium printing from Sal Lopes in Rhode Island and explored other alternative processes on my own. I exhibited my work in group and one man shows. I taught non-silver printing in a course at John Carroll University in Cleveland as well as teaching conventional photography in local workshops.
Over the years my interest in biology returned and I attended Wright State University School of Medicine where I graduated in 1990. I am currently an emergency doctor practicing in central Indiana.