I have not been "trained" in any sense of the word in photography. My artwork is raw and it is a culmination of experience painting on canvas and diving into charcoal on paper as a fine artist, balanced against designing and marketing in a full speed ahead digital world. I can recall a time when I was a young art student searching for direction to express myself. I took up graphic design (print and web) as a trade, given my father was a design and landscape architect and my mother was an art historian of sorts - it seemed like a natural extension for me.
It seems natural for me to capture moments in time and share them in unique ways - to inspire people to look at the world with fresh eyes. To stop a moment and take in everything around them, to appreciate it all for what it is.
I recall the first time I saw a Jerry Uelsmann piece (the one below) and how it lit a fire in my mind. A fire that burns to this day. To be able to take photography and expand it, push it to a place of surrealism. Raw, emotional - and all in the dark room. It was like magic to me, pushing photography to a place it had not been before.