Originally from Toledo, Ohio, I’m largely a self-taught photographer, starting in high school and using 35 mm equipment, working on photos for the school’s year book. I was lucky to have a darkroom in the basement of our home and was thus able to spend endless hours learning techniques of film and print developing, color and black & white. Eventually I gravitated to large format cameras: 4 x 5 and 8 x 10. In formative days, I enrolled in a Friends of Photography workshop in Carmel, California and was fortunate to spend time with Ansel Adams in his darkroom and home studio, as well as learn from Brett Weston, Minor White and other luminaries of the West Coast school. Back home, I studied traditional printmaking – from woodcuts to photolithography – under Peter Eloyan at the Toledo Museum School of Design. I also became a fan of Polaroid’s various products: b&w films, large format films, as well as their SX70 cameras.

It was through photography that I entered the workforce, joining the local PBS station as staff photographer. That job eventually led to a broader, nearly 50-year career in public television; photography took a back seat.

Recently retired and living with my partner full-time in Westport, MA, I’m reentering photography after its transformation from film to digital. My current technique is a blend of shooting film (35mm & 120mm), DSLR, the ever-present iPhone and a Box Brownie. I develop the film and scan the negatives into the computer and, where possible, make prints in my studio.