My interest in photography began in the summer of 1970 while I worked on the docks in Hampton Roads, Virginia as a member of the International Longshoreman's Association, Local 970.  I attended night school at Old Dominion College in art history with a growing interest in photography.  I purchased a Pentax K-1000 camera with a 28mm, 50mm and 135mm lens and a couple of rolls of Kodak Tri-X 400 ASA black & white film.  After working a grueling day loading and unloading ships and attending school three nights a week, I would retire to the sanctuary of my home to study my camera's manual.  I froze my union card in 1974 to enroll in the School of Visual Arts in NYC to further my study in photography.
     I eventually moved to Atlanta, GA. in 1979 which was becoming a promising city with enormous opportunities for the visual arts.  I opened a portrait studio in Atlanta's theatrical district photographing stage plays and doing commissioned portfolios for rising artists.  I met Kenney Rogers on his movie set 'Six Pack' which was being filmed in Forsyth County, GA. where I did his dailies.  After he expressed an interest in photography, I taught Kenny darkroom techniques and tutored him in the art of hand coloring his images. 
     I dedicated myself to learning everything I could on the fine art of black and white photography and eventually purchased a large format (4 X 5) Wista camera. and studied under master photographer Neil Chaput 'de Saintonge at his Atlanta school, Southeastern Center for the Photographic Arts.  At Neil's request, I began teaching and became the school's Nature Program Coordinator conducting photography workshops on Georgia's barrier islands such as St. Simon, Little St. Simon and Cumberland.
     My work has been published in numerous magazines and in three hardbound books depicting vanishing landscapes in rural Georgia, North and South Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia.  One of my strongest images was displayed in a body of work titled 'We the People' at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.  Another photograph was recognized in an international art exhibit in Niepce', France.  I've worked on three Civil Rights projects with Atlanta's master photographer Reginald McGhee and Alabama's Poet Laureate Lizetta LaFalle-Collins of Tuskegee Institute covering conflicts dealing with Civil Rights and the Ku Klux Klan.  I also worked on a project with Reginald McGhee on 'Religious Icons Found in Rural Southern Homes' and was his darkroom technician for his vast collection of glass plates taken by James Van der Zee at the turn of the century titled, 'Harlem on my Mind'.
     I still use 35mm and 4 X 5 black and white film and after fifty-five years have stayed true to a documentary style, I taught myself by studying the works of pioneer F.S.A. photographers of the 1930's and 40's, such as Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange and Eugene Smith.  I hand-process my film and print my images on silver-gelatin, fiber base paper from Croatia using an antique Besler Omega enlarger I purchased in 1980 from the Fulton County Crime Lab in Atlanta for a mere $75.00.
     After many years of exciting photographic adventures, I have finally retired but continue my personal projects.  I feel humbled and very fortunate to have had the pleasure of meeting, learning and working with so many great photographers of my time.