When the Earth Dreams

If the Earth could tell us what she dreamed last night, what would she say, what would her dreams look like, and would we be included in her dreams?

This series of photos explores the idea of the Earth as a Dreamer. Through slow shutter speed, intentional camera movement, and multi-exposure these photos capture various landscapes in a dream-like manner, in hopes that the viewer feels connected to the Earth as she dreams.

Land Ethic

LAND ETHIC - “enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals,

or collectively: the land.”

The Land Ethic by Aldo Leopold

This series was created in response to my lifelong love affair with nature, Aldo Leopold’s essay The Land Ethic, and the Japanese concept "mottainai” or zero waste living. Like other conservation conscious folk, I am alarmed at the rate in which wild places and natural resources are being struck down and trampled for profit.

Even though the photos in this collection document various landscapes, this series is not documentary photography. Instead the idea is to capture the essence of the landscape in a more dream-like manner, with intention to connect the viewer to the essences or soul of the landscape.

When our viewpoint shifts from seeing nature as a consumable product for profit to seeing nature as an extension of ourselves, we not only make different decisions on what we purchase, we also see ourselves differently. We no longer are individuals facing the world alone through our own strength. Our community is extended beyond homosapiens to include the land, plants, animals, collectively the environment which is the source of our wellbeing. The viewer is invited to see nature as an extension of themself.

The goal for this body of work is to raise funds for environmental non-profits that strive to protect natural resources through education, land acquisition, and habitat restoration.

Through a Glass Darkly

THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY is an exploration of my inner identity after receiving a life altering medical diagnosis. This series began with the notion, I have a limited amount of time in this physical form and I am more than my name, what I do, who I’m married to, or even who I think I am. The question I wanted to explore more fully was “who am I at the core of my being or spirit?” Photography was the medium I used to capture this inner journey.

While grappling with the fleeting nature of my physical existence I often felt like a ghost - a whisper of a human, where the lines between my physical form and spirit became blurred. It was this blurring I wanted to express in camera.

Although there are interior photos in this series, I connected more deeply to the stillness within myself while in wild solitary places. While creating these photographs, I often felt an inner shift of knowing. I not only felt deeply connected to the environment that I was in, but I also felt deeply connected to the source of life. As I became more open to this source of life the fear of losing my physical form began to fade. During this journey the spirit world became as real to me as the physical world I was standing in.

New York with Friends

These New York images were made with a combination of intentional camera moment and multi exposure blended in camera.

I keep gravitating to this type of abstract photography because it combines the mastery of the technical side of photography with playful chance, which for me is like working in collaboration with the serendipitous nature of the universe.