Biography

As it relates to his photography, so then:

I was born just after mid-century, and raised in an artistic family. My grandmother was a primary female figure in the Abstract Expressionist movement in New York City, being represented by the prestigious Betty Parsons. She gave up greater recognition to live in the more peaceful environment of her birthplace, Biloxi, Mississippi, and to paint almost daily until her death in 1993 at 90 years of age. The singular most influential force in my own artistic education, Dusti's one piece of advice was always, "Honey if you're cursed with an art, then look for another way to make a living." That one statement is packed with meanings.

My father Lyle gave me a 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 Graflex when I was 10 years old and a Weston 2 light meter. The camera was mounted to one of Lyle's view camera tripods, a heavy wood and metal contraption which was difficult to manipulate, and I was told I must make 50 photographs before I could remove the camera or use a smaller hand-held camera. I had to pay for each sheet of film after the first 10, which were his gift to me. I was taught how to use a light meter and instructed in basic techniques for proper exposures. The alchemical blending of substances to develop negatives and prints followed as I grew older. One admonition was that I take great care in composing an image using the entire field of view the camera provided and making sure the final image was clean of junk (candy wrappers, tin cans, garden hoses etc.) unless somehow important to the image itself. The arduous manipulation of the camera on a tripod, positioning it, moving it again and again until the frame was as well composed as I could make it. The most important lesson to a photographer was being bestowed by the very limitations of working from a tripod. That was patience, and the understanding that not everything you see that is "pretty" necessarily makes a good photograph. Further, the cost of a sheet of film forced economy upon my visions.

Throughout my early school years until high school in the late '70s, I photographed inconsistently, mainly limited by the expense of film, though in high school I was the sole photographer for the most part on the annual staff. In college at the University of New Orleans and Tulane University studying art and then filmmaking, (until I departed my Junior year out of complete boredom) I continued to photograph more seriously and to photograph Mardi Gras in the French Quarter of New Orleans alongside Lyle. It seemed an interesting "Father/Son" activity.

In the '80s, a career at sea intervened. Finding another way to make a living, I continued to photograph sporadically. During this time I took up pottery and painting, seeking more methods to express myself creatively, and I do both fairly well. Photography, however, was the constant throughout. Working as a ship's officer throughout the late '80s and the '90s, I photographed infrequently. In the early '90s, I began to work seriously in color, completely in the abstract and over several years compiled a large quantity of work. Another period of some inactivity followed and then most recently, following the death of my father in 2009, I have returned to almost constant work as a photographer.

I now use digital cameras and processing/printing for the most part. Having for some time allowed myself the self-indulgent luxury of the "Arrogant Traditionalist" and holding on tenaciously to the specious argument that digital photography lacked luminosity and depth when compared to traditional methods, I have come to realize that the "honest" human eye cannot see any real difference between a digital image and a traditional negative-produced image, and that we are now fully engaged with the new technology for better or worse. And, there will always be the best and the worst of imagery produced no matter what technology is used to make it.