BIOGRAPHY

I had just turned twenty when I met Gene Saunders who would become my first teacher in photography. That encounter has always seemed like such a random, chance meeting. Gene had studied with Ansel Adams and Minor White, and recognizing that I was searching for a “voice”, he offered a camera. I remember asking him what he thought a “machine” could do. I was very young and naive. He wisely responded, “ Well, maybe not much, but you have nothing to lose so why not give it a go.” I was of course instantly hooked, a pathway opened and I began my life’s work. Photographing is as much a love affair today as it was when I began over sixty years ago.

I was very fortunate to have met many remarkable people in those early, formative years. There was Minor White, who would become my mentor, and Ruth Bernhard, Eliot Porter, Nancy Newhall, Dorothy Norman, Ansel Adams and Georgia O’Keefe to name a few. They were encouraging and served as significant role models as well.

Photography can teach us about paying attention to the world around us, being present and responding in the moment. The resulting imagery can also be seen as a mirror, a visible artifact of our inner response. This work has been my primary teacher. Surely, the greatest lesson is to regard the whole of life with wonder and reverence.

Collections

  • Art Institute of Chicago
  • Philadelphia Museum of Art
  • George Eastman House
  • Fogg Museum, Harvard University
  • Art Museum, University of New Mexico
  • Bank of America LaSalle Collection, Chicago
  • The Albuquerque Museum
  • The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago
  • Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona
  • The Los Angeles County Museum
  • San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
  • Tucson Museum of Art

 

Exhibitions

  • Art Institute of Chicago
  • Philadelphia Museum of Art
  • Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago
  • Fine Arts Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe
  • Art Museum, University of New Mexico
  • Friends of Photography, Carmel
  • Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
  • Sonnenschein Gallery, Lake Forest College
  • Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford College
  • The Albuquerque Museum
  • The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago
  • Tucson Museum of Art

 

Published Books

  • Of Earth and Timbers Made, University of New Mexico Press, 1974
  • A Garden For All Seasons, Chicago Botanic Garden, 1990
  • Intimate Landscapes, Lake Forest College, 1993