Artist Statement

My work is a celebration of biodiversity and rare natural habitats of the immediate Chicago area. Many times more rare than the Amazon rainforest, these special places offer a poignant beauty all their own.

Unlike the dramatic geology of the western United States, there are no iconic overlooks or vantage points in Chicagoland. Rather, the beauty of the Chicago area lies in its ever-changing display of wildflowers that decorate the prairies and savannas throughout the year.

Because of the less than dramatic geology of the Chicagoland area, the landscape is not inherently photogenic and 3-dimensional. Therefore, I have developed special compositional techniques to overcome this challenge.

Seeing beauty with our own eyes and photographing beauty are completely different things. When viewed in person, nature is chaotic and yet it is still beautiful. But, when photographed, the image better be orderly and tell a single story or else the image will fail. Again, I have developed several compositional techniques to bring order to the chaos.

But, if photography is to be art, then it must not merely document the world. Even a monkey can take a decent picture of a photogenic subject. Tolstoy said, "Art is the transfer of emotion from one person to another" and that is my goal: to capture my experience of the moment, to record my feelings on film, my emotions on emulsion.

Unlike a painter, who fabricates perfect moments from the imagination, I use light and composition to record images of actual perfect moments in time—perfect moments that celebrate the rich biodiversity of the Chicago area.