I have had a life-long interest in photography gathering skills via professional mentoring in methods of film photography and techniques. I was mentored by professional photographers at a time when the medium was film and the finished product came out of a darkroom using chemical techniques to change an image view. I have translated these skills to the world of digital photography and the use of post processing to emulate film types and darkroom methods as well as to incorporate painterly skills into my toolbox. During 30+ years as a of biology professor and research scientist, I used photomicrography, electron microscopy and photo image analysis to enhance biochemical, molecular and genetics in my research to answer biological questions about parasite-host interactions.

To do this I often enhance the image through post processing to present a digital painting as an abstraction or impression.

My work has been exhibited regionally and nationally in juried, curated, and solo exhibitions in invited exhibits in the St. Louis, Missouri area and in virtual on-line galleries.

I use a photographic image to tell a story, not necessarily my story, but the story a viewer sees through his or her imagination and while most of my work is done in-camera, I use post processing to emulate vintage films, and vintage techniques such as wet plate, Daguerreotype, calotype, cyanotype and lith, as well as artistic expression found in paintings or to enhance the story by creating a digital painting abstract or impression from the photo. I also print on a variety of papers such as metal paper and linen paper to gain full expression of the photograph and the post processing. I believe that it is not the photograph alone that tells the story but how the story is illustrated by the method chosen “in the digital darkroom” or on the paper selected for printing.

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