Artist Statement

My interest in photography started out long before  the evolution of digital capture ,working with both 35 mm and medium format film cameras . Back when film was the only method available for creating images I did my own B&W processing to have complete control over my images and had an extensive home Darkroom  , developing my negatives and printing up to 16×20 prints. The  foundation to my knowledge in photography learning all the basics of exposure, metering ,  camera  functions  and  also image related qualities such as composition , color harmony, leading lines  and image impact  still are valid in today’s digital world. Digital  capture and post processing with software has opened up a vast of opportunities to be creative after image capture and enabled photographers avenues of creativity that never existed before. There is room for both the purist approach to creating photographic art  with little post processing to present to the viewer a real life presentation of a subject and also to being creative with a lot of software enhancement   to create a one of a kind art piece. Some of my work  would fit into both of these approaches , it is after all up to the artist , to make that call as to what they wish to present to those who view their work , either a real life presentation or something well beyond what the camera captures .

Artist Interview 

Bio 

My love for photography started in my teenage years and grew over the years as my knowledge and desire to capture images to portray my vision of the world around me. My early years in photography started out as a hobby and as a member of the Ocean County Camera Club in the early 70’s. Making the move to becoming professional in 1993 and joining The Professional Photographers Association of New Jersey .  I became active in the association and served as President 2008–2009. 1998 I became a member of Professional Photographers of America ,the following year my goal was to become Certified  through PPA and met the test requirements and image submission in 1999 and still maintain that status until today. Professional Photographers of America offers various degrees for both service and image excellence , in pursuit of achieving both education ,service and image excellence my goal was to attain both the Craftsmen Degree and Masters Degree through PPA and in 2012 received my Craftsmen Degree  and the following year in 2013  I obtained My PPA Masters Degree . I hold the Distinguished Fellow of Photography Degree ,the highest degree in our state association PPANJ. I have lectured on various photography topics to our members in our state association as well as other locations and also at our state convention in the past. While achieving the above goals was an important step in my pursuit of photographic endeavors ,    photographic competitions through both our state association ( PPANJ ) and also on a international level through  International Print Competition (ICP)  of PPA was an important step in achieving image excellence ,by having my work judge by the top professional photographers in the industry. I have accumulated 37 PPA merited images with 12 being published  in an annual PPA Loan Collection Book

The following recognition from International Print Competition are also some of my Print accomplishments  ,in order   to receive any of the Photographer of the Year status all four of your submitted images must be accepted for exhibition at the annual PPA Convention the different levels are determined by how many are also  published in the Loan Collection Book

  • 2011 PPA Silver Photographer of the year
  • 2013 PPA Gold Photographer of the year
  • 2014  PPA Gold Photographer of the year
  • 2015  PPA Platinum Photographer of the year
  • 2016  PPA Silver Photographer of the year
  • On a state level I have received the following awards
  • Three Kodak Gallery Awards
  • Two Fuji Masterpiece Awards
  • Two Sunset Lexjet Awards
  • Two Certified Photographer of the Year Awards
  • 2008 & 2009 Fassbender Cup Award   (Highest scoring print )
  • 2008 Zeltsman Award    (highest accumulative print case score )

Two of my most proudest accomplishments have to do with service to the industry one being PPANJ  Award given  for service to our State Association and its members 2013. 

The second and definitely my proudest accomplishment was receiving the PPA  National Award  given for Meritorious Contributions to Professional Photography in 2015.