Bio

This is the part where I talk about myself.  I equivocate between trying to say  a lot and not saying much at all.  Ultimately it doesn't matter that much.  Either you like what you see here or you don't  and my life story is not going to change that much.  But let's try and hit the bullet points-- First camera was a Praktica 35mm SLR, bought with earnings from a summer job while I was in high school.  Loved that camera.  As a sophomore and junior, I spent so much time in the school darkroom that I started taking vitamins because my eyes were getting light-sensitive. Usual stuff--  high school annual staff, high school paper-- got an internship at the local small-town weekly newspaper.   Graduated, knocked around lacking resources or ideas about what to do next. Ultimately entered Job Corps, because I was poor and it seemed like a good idea at the time.  Entered the offset printing program.  The Center was operated on an old Navy base.   In the lithographic darkroom I discovered a closet that had two old enlargers and a stock of powder chemicals and paper.  I had brought my camera  with me as well as a bulk roll of B&# film and cartridges.  Can you say 'hog heaven'? Left Job Corps and moved to Seattle.  My camera broke and surviving and earnining a living pushed photography  onto the back burner for several years. It's undeniably an expensive hobby. In the early 90's I discovered a whole bunch of new things.  The internet and the BDSM community chief among them, with help from a partner who was at her happiest when  she was tied up.  I also enrolled in a commercial art school, then dropped out after a year due  primarily to  my own financial and physical limitations.  I always knew I was primarily a people photographer.  Still lifes and landscapes generally bore me.  But I had to grow into it and find the kind of people who were interesting enough to me to pull me past my own tendency towards shyness.   Henri-Cartier Bresson and Annie Leibovitz were both significant influences for me.  With my entrance into the 'scene' I had discovered a couple of different passions, and a renewed interest in photography was one of them.  For the last 12 years I've been taking  opportunities where I could find them to document activities, events and personalities in the kink, fetish, leather, goth and queer communities that exist in the Pacific Northwest.

Shows-- Beyond the Edge Cafe, Seattle-- 1998 (?) Post Options, Capitol Hill, Seattle-- 1999 Authors & Artists Party, Maryland- 2000 Artbound I, Seattle, 2000 Seattle Erotic Art Festival, juried show, 2003, 2004 Capitol Hill Cafe/Malixe's Dirty Art Party New Year's Eve Celebration, 2003-2004 Lusty Lady, Seattle 2004 Events-- Artbound I & II --photographer and director of photography. Living in Leather 15--official staff photographer Wet Spot in Paradise 2003--official staff photographer Seattle Erotic Art Festival--lead photographer and archivist, 2003-2006 Washington State Mr. & Ms. Leather Contest, Northwest Leather Sir & Boy, Washington State Leather Daddy, Seattle Leather Ambassador and other title contests--multiple times, multiple years. Burning Hearts Burlesque at Rendezvous Theater; ArtBeat, the Art of Pinup at the Catwalk Club; Moonday at the Fenix Underground.