I'm a Professor of History at Albright College, and a self-taught photographer. An Ohio native, I did benefit from five years of early formal art instruction (from 4th to 8th grades) in the famed Saturday classes of the Toledo Museum of Art. At Albright, I am the official portrait photographer of the Domino Players, and, for the past four years, have supplied all the photography for the Albright Annual Report, the 2002-2003 edition of which won a Gold Medal from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. In 2004, I undertook to make formal portraits of a wide range of persons living and working in Reading, Pennsylvania, the results of which were mounted in the public exhibition Faces of Reading: 1000 Portraits of a City. My photographic pursuits share time with a full schedule of classes in American and African history and with co-curricular interests in the theatre (I've acted in 13 Domino Players productions) and music (as a cellist in the Albright String Chamber Orchestra). All of the images in the Faces of Reading exhibition were created with an OLYMPUS C-5050 digital camera. I've since graduated to a NIKON D200.
My great advantage, and my great privilege, as a portrait photographer in a college setting, is to know so many of my subjects (my students and colleagues) so well – as writers, researchers, test-takers, discussants, advisees, athletes, actors, musicians, and friends. That context and foreknowledge furnishes both a goal and a guide as I come to photograph them. Indeed, were an outside photographer to come to campus looking for interesting subjects with interesting stories, s/he would almost need to consult with me about whom to shoot. The fact that I can also produce the images saves that outside visit and that consultation.
While most of my work revolves around the College, I am open, especially during the summer months, to interesting outside commissions.