As a young man I wanted be a doctor, but that went out the window when I took an elective course in photography as a pre-med student. I discovered photography and met my future wife, my two life-long loves, in the same year at the age of 21.

My photographic heroes were the Western landscape photographers: Edward Weston and Ansel Adams. Eliot Porter’s book about Glen Canyon on the Colorado River, “The Place No One Knew”, was a revelation. Having never seen mountains or canyons growing up in the Midwest, I was entranced by the idea of a landscape with few people in it. I wanted to experience wilderness, to walk in one, before they were all gone.

My wife and I found that wilderness in Arizona in the early 70’s. We created a life for ourselves in Tucson; raised two sons and built a house of mud bricks we made ourselves in the backyard. I started a business, began showing my work, and have had much success. There have been grants, shows around the country and even overseas, prints in important collections, a book published, all of that can be found in my resume.

What matters are not awards or accolades, but whether or not I have managed to find the homeland I was seeking when I was in my twenties, and whether I have been able to express it’s beauty to others through my work. A list of shows won’t tell you that, and won’t tell you anything about me.