My photographic journey began in the early 1960’s. I cannot remember a time I didn’t take pictures, just sometimes more than others. As a furniture-maker for 22 years my sensitivity to the nuance of shape and proportion was honed. This sensitivity became the foundation of my photographic “eye”. A few years ago I put down chisel and plane and devoted myself to my photography. For the past few years I have been photographing constantly.

I tend to photograph in series. Perhaps this too is a result of my furniture making experience, where each piece was completed before another begun. I have discovered that many things inspire me visually, and that one doesn’t have to travel far to find subjects. I take great satisfaction in discovering things to photograph, but why I photograph what I do is open to conjecture

Primarily, I shoot medium format and 4x5 black and white film. I still enjoy the process of developing my own film. The negatives are scanned into the digital workflow, where spots are removed and burning and dodging are performed. Images that I wish to use for alternative processes are enlarged and printed as digital negatives. These digital negatives are contact printed under ultra-violet light and processed as gold toned salt prints or albumen prints. Other images are printed with archival pigment inks on the best archival papers.




mike3