Like a precious stone turning in the light the facets of my oeuvre range from intimate slices from behind the curtains of performances to powerful moments on life’s stage, literal urban tableaus and allegorical vignettes to abstracts and gestural figuratives.
My photographic Fine Art work has been influenced by a number of light imagers, e.g. Albert Renger-Patzch, Man Ray, Carlotta Corpron and Dr. Harold Edgerton. My research into artists from the Bauhaus and De Stijl was key in turning my focus to the sources of Color Theory and Pattern Recognition, Johannes Albers, Josef Itten, and Rudolf Arnheim, and how to apply them to my imagery.
The light-oriented series that enabled me to study light, color, filmstock simultaneously, and subsequently ‘capture’ the laser images, was, Hot Light: Conjuring from the Bucket. I was fortunate to start photographing holographer Matt Hansen’s manipulation of glass at UW-Madison’s Glass Lab. At the time he was the assistant to Dr. Tung Jeong, one of the pioneers of holography at the time. Our intent was to use the photographs to create holograms. It was Matt who introduced me to Russell Hilton, founder of Chicago’s defunct Museum of Holography. (circa 1979)
‘Lumière Captureé‘, documents the vintage laser imagery, how I captured them, and perception of their value (I’m working on completing the book right now). In 1979 I ‘captured’ slices of 20 foot by 40 foot, freeform, in-concert laser imagery, on slow still film with an analog camera. The only places the dynamic imagery existed was on the backs of the viewers’ retinas or my film. To date no other photographer has come forward with photographs of the same subject matter and timeline. Acquiring both the vibrancy of the colors and the discreteness of the light patterns with an analog camera and fine grain film was a technical challenge requiring the data acquired from the Hot Light: Conjuring from the Bucket studies combined with the inexact science of intuition. Images from this facet are in the permanent collections of the Amon Carter Museum and the Schomburg Collection of the New York City Public Library. (circa 1980)
The ‘MugFiles‘ Facet are the faces of people who have intersected with my film plane, and sometimes my Average Life. They cross disciplines, countries and cultural barriers from the average person on the street in Nepal or Jamaica to notables, e.g. Robert Rauchenberg, I. M. Pei, Robert Colescott, Greg Tate, Jesse Jackson. Any number of them are historic or ‘Legendary’ and some recently passed, the most current being Sir Donald Kinsey and Aston Barrett, Sr. of the ‘original’ Wailers, and ‘Legend of Latin Rock’, Jorge Santana, any number of them, #overlooked. Images from this Facet are in the permanent collection of the Anacostia Museum of Smithsonian Institution. (circa 1980)
The ‘Fleurotica‘, the sensual aspect of flora, are a version of my figurative works that is trompe l’oeil, fooling you into thinking that they are human parts. (circa 1984)
When I started out shooting architecture what fascinated me was how when light moved, so did the ‘building-as-sculpture’. This evolved into capturing shapes and forms that resembled the elements from ancient Egyptian culture. The urban tableaus became a series entitled, The Eyes of Osiris, shaped by an allegory extracted from the Book of the Coming Forth by Day. It tells stories of the brothers Osiris and Set and their challenges to rule the Ancient world, particularly how Osiris ended up in a sarcophagus, and the origin of mummification. My tale is of what Osiris’ eyes saw before they were returned to his body. (circa 1988)
During the ’80s and ’90s the dark room allowed me to alter the chemistry and processing methodology of black and white or Cibachromes materials to create process- and/or image-manipulated, one-of-a-kind Jinnagraphs, my version of Man Ray’s Rayograms. In 2021, having found a ‘dedicated’ Master Printer, Seth Dickerman, though no more Ciba materials, I set out to replicate the ‘Jinnagraph‘ process with his expertise and Hahnemühle paper. Images from this Facet are represented in Deb Willis’ Reflections in Black : A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present. (circa 1990)
The Mentors and Muses series is dedicated primarily to a Baker’s Dozen of individuals who’ve helped shape my work, e.g. MacArthur Fellow Reggie Bradford, fine art furniture designer Jose Marmol, photographer Gordon Parks, artist/inventor Charles Mingus III. Some of these are digitally manipulated have the addition of the Old World surface treatments, e.g. chigiri-e, goldleaf, eggshell. (circa 1990)
MusIkons are an expansion of the MugFiles digitally manipulating aspects of and incorporating laser images with specific musicians. (2005)
T.I.M.M. (This Is My Mind) draws on my 6 decade love affair with ‘cartoons’ from Dick Tracy and Felix the Cat (in black and white of course), to classic Marvel shows and anime, to Snowball, the Minions and various and sundry anime. A ‘latchkey kid’ from the ’50s TV was my best friend. They combine the characters I’ve ‘excerpted’ from the laser images, digitally manipulated with the tenets of ‘systems’ I’ve been influenced by and invested energy in, from ‘High Church’ Christianity to the Wizard of Oz to Freemasonry and Santeria. Positioned in their own ‘Verse(s) the esoteric and spiritual elements and undertones run rampant throughout the work with the added spice of my sense of humor. (2017)
My fascination with the Japanese culture began with karate movies and wove its way into my version of a zodiac, ‘Ikon-ziac‘, the animals of the zodiac created through a subtractive laser-image process. (2020)
An assemblage of 5 objects, the Wabi Sabi Suite reflects an elegant philosophy of ‘living’. It is a concept that allows us to see the beauty in what might be viewed as ‘im-perfection’. ‘Wabi’ is about recognizing beauty in humble simplicity, while ‘Sabi’ references the passage of time. These two concepts connect to create an overarching philosophy for approaching life, ‘accepting what is Nature’. The various Old World Surface Treatments I learned from Jose Augusto Marmol are core to the final tabletop objet. (2023)
Focused primarily on Northern California Heroes of Hemp:Outlaws of the New Millennium is the photodocumentary on the personalities and actors involved in the Hemp Industry’s parade toward legality.