The One Love Project
I have one daughter, my only child. Our bond is strong. Our time together is plentiful. And our energy is as intertwined as our limbs when we cuddle. Seeing her solitary through my camera lens grew difficult over time, because it is inaccurate. She isn’t alone. I am here, too. As a playmate, chase partner, hula hooper, nature explorer, tickler, adventurer, and a haven. I even let her stuff blankets under my shirt when she wants to play baby, despite the slight pang of emotion I feel with the scenario. But she is exploring life as an only, in her own way, so I embrace that. Whether it be my hand, foot, shadow, reflection, or mere implied presence and closeness — I am here. And we have fun! While I am certain her memory will remember, the photographic representation feels significant to me. Though this visual exploration has meandered through various emotional terrain — such as joy, questioning, healing, and thankfulness — what prevails above all, is simply connection and love. And it runs deeper than anything else.

SEVEN-EIGHT
This work is about a daughter. She turned eight and is growing incredibly fast.
This work is about time. Moment by moment. It flies.
This work is about an amazing little girl.
Who loves shoes and nail polish and hairbands and dolls and princesses and pink.
This work is about family. Including a puppy. Who eats dolls.
This work is about a mom. Who wants to bottle it all up and keep it forever.

I photographed all my daughter’s shoes in March 2015 (except for those old boots that were thrown away at the shoe store). If these shoes could talk, they would tell you an amazing story of a powerful little girl who has travelled a long way, a family learning about each other day-by-day, and a beautiful dance of life.

I photographed all my daughter’s bottles of nail polish. Because she had all these bottles of nail polish. As her hairbands frayed and other objects got broken, I photographed them before they moved out of our lives. As the old nursery rhyme suggests, by photographing them, I was “laying them straight.”

I am fascinated by how these little objects hold story – the pink flowered headband that she wore to school almost every day in first grade, her first Barbie doll – now devoured by the puppy, the princess crown to mark her eighth birthday – broken by me before the celebration could even begin. These things were hers when she was seven and eight.

Poppets and Blocking

The boats I photograph are not in the water; they live on poppets and blocks, in driveways and backyards — such a familiar part of the New England landscape that I’ve only recently started giving them any notice at all. Many of these boats are in disrepair, on the edge of ruin, and at risk of never returning to the water.

I believe these boats at one time represented hope, the idea that their restoration would bring close bonding to a family, become the vessel in which to wander and see the world, or function as an essential tool for providing income. Somehow, something got in the way of these intentions. Surely there must be stories behind these boats, where they came from and why they were left to slowly waste away. In my photographs I do my best to present these boats in a dignified fashion, to record them with respect, regardless of their stage of decomposition. To me, each of these boats is a visible remnant of loss: a loss of direction, the end of a productive career, the loss of someone’s life.. of an abandoned dream.

Every act of perception is an act of categorization. This concept allows us to relate entities together into classes, and provide a basis for understanding as well as implication. Although categorization enables us to organize the world, it is the social constructs of gender that shape our physical experience, more specifically, our public restroom experience. In the United States we actively participate in this ritual in public realms. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, my goal is give voice to this act of categorization and the implications of how those who are marginalized by it are affected. These images aim to create a visual representation of a spatial narrative that impacts everyone, but more importantly, those who do not conform to a binary system. The categorization of people into two sexes is a social construction, imposed on an individual by society. With respect to social cognition, these images are mostly interested in the various subtle representations of gender identity through decoration, design and accentuation. It is those who do not necessarily adopt the corresponding masculine or feminine gender role that are at a disadvantage in relation to the environment in which people are required to choose one, or the other. My question is, once we pass the sign on the door, does it really matter?

STICKS & STONES
I have always been a collector of stones. Every room in my home has at least one basket of smooth stones from the ocean where waves have worn away the rough edges. I once took a geology class and quickly discovered that I am not very interested in the origins of stones. I collect stones because they make me feel at peace.

I thought about photographing these stones for years. Then recently I went out to my yard to clean up the odds and ends that winter left behind, and I saved a few sticks with interesting shapes. On walks around my neighborhood, I picked up more sticks that looked like good companions for my stones. Now I am a collector of sticks and stones.

I have spent many hours arranging (playing with) sticks, stones, torn paper, and colored strings. What I love about creating these photographs is the simplicity and the endless possibilities.

Terra Incognita, Intimate landscapes
Sometimes I find it’s just a matter of taking a moment to pause – to open my ears, to open my eyes. In doing so new insights can be revealed and new worlds are sometimes discovered. What was right before me all along suddenly comes into focus.

The title for this series of photographs stems from the designation that early European cartographers gave to those regions of the world that were known to exist, but which had not yet been explored. Such areas were labeled Terra Incognita – unknown land. The Earth has now been mapped many times over, but there remain seemingly wild and unexplored lands all around us that are frequently passed by unnoticed. This project documents my visits to some of these places.

I am fascinated by the way in which these images can, at the same moment, feel both very familiar and utterly foreign. I look at them and lose my sense of scale and time. There’s a quality of place that I can imagine inhabiting and yet I’m not sure where I am.

As I consider the images further I begin to reflect on my conceptions of the landscape and the interrelationship between the physical and biological forces that shape it. I wonder what it is that establishes within me a sense of place and contemplate the connections between my memories of the land and the images I make of it.

In reality, all the places in these unmanipulated photographs exist on the surfaces of trees. And while my body cannot physically explore them, the photographs provide fertile ground for my imagination — drawing me in and evoking stories as I explore this new terrain in my mind’s eye.
It is my hope that these photographs set an evocative scene for others as well, thereby allowing each person to create their own personal encounters within these intimate landscapes.

As the world of nature cedes to the world of development, the landscapes I photograph become the urban landscape. Urban Landscape Photography is more about the city itself than the people in it. It speaks about the way we live – it’s about people’s impact on the environment, rather than the people themselves.

These photographs highlight interactions between the natural and human-built environments. The urban environment often constrains nature within incongruous constructs that have nothing to do with it, or that actively conflict with nature.

My photography is more interested in what happens in and around a building and how it interacts with the world than the architecture of the building itself. My images capture visual diversity and juxtapositions in order to give a different perspective on a space and to invite us to look at it deeply. I take mundane places and show how extraordinary they can be.

When Animals Meet
For most of us wild animals are part of the natural world where we no longer dwell. They are curiosities that we visit.

This series explores what happens to them and to us when we meet in the few arenas open to us today. From Franklin Park Zoo to the Mystic Aquarium and to the Galapagos, I photograph moments when I see engagement, meetings when the animals are as curious and aware as the humans. Maybe even more important are those occasions when both parties mirror each other, reminding us that we are not so different after all.

Abstract Elements
I grew up in Northern New England and as the saying goes; you are where you come from. I was surrounded with incredible natural land and organic formations and I have always been drawn to how design elements are manifested in nature and how they relate to, and enhance one another to express my personal vision.

My current work illustrates a natural evolution and interpretation of these elements, which has led me to a new perspective resulting in increased abstraction, or a nonliteral representation of subject matter. This abstraction is intended to lead the viewer to grasp the implied essence of the image, thereby making the interpretation an individual and personal experience.

Horses, Top Hats and Old Hollywood
Dressage is an ancient equestrian art developed to ensure that horses going into battle were obedient and responsive to the rider. Later it became a little-known Olympic sport (and still is). This portfolio of images presents the power, grace and elegance of dressage along with a twist of “Old Hollywood” flavor.

While photographs of the horse and rider in the ring during elite competition abound, my esthetic is more of a visual storytelling approach. I present the behind-the-scenes view such as riding to the competition in the early morning light, the coach and rider working together, the riders and horses warming up and the “rail hangers” watching it all. Climb into the frame, walk around and get a sense of the excitement, intensity and glamour of elite international dressage competition.