About me​

 

I view myself as a member of a herd.

Literally as a member of a herd of dairy goats and that of humanity where my survival is determined by the herd and the herd’s survival is determined by each individual. 

I also view myself as a shepherd, a shepherd who sometimes leads and sometimes follows but most often just present with the herd - I becomes us becomes we, no one leading or being led. Present.  And often finding peace.

I will also say never totally trust the shepherd, the shepherd not only guides and guards the herd but is also the one who sends members to slaughter.

I proclaim to be an artist, and pastoralist, finding peace as part of a herd of dairy goats. 

Like one of Darwin’s Finches, I found a niche in this world. 

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Now a less cryptic description

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I grew up in a working-class Italian family in the Chicago suburbs were going to college was not encouraged or discouraged.  I attended the University of Illinois Circle Campus, a commuter college just west of downtown Chicago built in and on the old Italian neighborhood.  Its construction displaced half the community. 

 I majored in art with a concentration in photography.  The Visual Arts department was heavily influenced by the Bahaus School merging fine arts with functional craftmanship.  Form follows function was their motto.   

All three of my photography teachers, Ester Parada, Joseph Jachna and Robert Stiegler were graduates of the Institute of Design often referred to as the Chicago Bahaus.  All three have influenced my work not only in the visual aspect but in the working methods and a willingness to bend and often break traditional conventions around photography.

I feel the main superpower of traditional photography is that the photograph is of something that exists or existed in the world at a specific moment in time.  

Think of the emotions stirred by old family photographs.

 

 

About my photographs

 

Making photographs has been a constant in my life since I was 14 years old. It was a way to participate in the world and simultaneously be separate from it.  I became an observer.  Being an observer ignited curiosity and let me often examine, from a safe psychological distance, the world our society wishes to ignore.  

 

I photograph as part of my day-to-day life not concentrating on any one subject or assigning myself a project.  As a result, if you look at my work in a linier fashion it appears unfocused and scattered but what emerges overtime is my view of the world photographed.   Forty years later these images can be grouped together in what I will call interests such as portraits or landscapes or events.    

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​A big thank you to Marcy and Paper and Ink in Missoula MT, these high quality prints are truly a collaborative effort.