I like to photograph flowers for the grace they bring to the world, the wildness that is contained in the heart of every flower no matter how showy or domesticated it is, and the realism, clarity, and bravery with which flowers confront the mystery of their brief lives. And, okay, flowers are simply beautiful. In fact, flowers live for beauty. As a species, they make their living by seeming attractive—to their pollinators, and to us humans because symbiotically we help them spread far and wide.
Mostly, flowers aren’t practical. We help them grow for their beauty and poetry. How can we not want to capture this ephemeral and bold stand against entropy and the chaos of the universe?
I believe that advances in the technology and craft of digital photography have created an entirely new medium. While I am trained as a classical photographer and painter, my photographic images are made using special HDR (High Dynamic Range) capture techniques that extend the range of visual information beyond what the eye can normally see.
I create and process my images using wide-gamut and alternative digital methods
that I have invented. My techniques combine the craft of photography with the skills
of a painter.
Over-sized printing on unusual substrates such as pearlized metallic and washi rice papers fascinates me. I believe that nothing like my prints has ever been seen before. They simply could not have been created until recently. I’ve been able to create in a domain where many techniques and crafts have come together for the first time. My prints are made meticulously, and have a 200-year archival rating for ink and paper if
they are handled properly.
With my botanical prints, I like to combine the old and new. My photographic and digital painting techniques are definitely new. The Washi paper that I use for my printing comes from a traditional Japanese paper mill with the craft handed down within the same family for more than 700 years. This rice paper has been modified for the superb high-tech archival digital printing technology that I use. My prints demonstrate this interplay of the old and new because they can only have been created using modern techniques, but each hand-made print echoes the aesthetic of classical botanical prints
as well as Asian art.
“Peonies”
“Bamboo 2”
“Cherry Dance”
“Duet of Daffodils”
“Floarl Medley Panorama”
“Flowering Quince”
“Greek Poppies 1”
“Peonies and Matilija Poppies”
“Peonies Pano”
“Red Poppies”
“Star Magnolia Pano”
“White Irises”
