Since adolescence, photography has been the primary tool of my creative expression. In response to my connection with photography I studied at Greenfield Community College where I balanced a commitment to photographic expression with one to social and environmental concern. I went on to study photography at Mass College of Art in Boston for two more years but before completing their curriculum I became attracted to more academic pursuits. I received a Bachelors degree in Sustainable Community Development through the Prescott College Adult Degree Program in 2006. In this program I began developing ideas concerning social and cultural change that begin at the individual and community level. These ideas are specifically concerned with processes of communication and the power of language to communicate value. Both of these concerns – among others – are ones that are profoundly important to the artistic process that I experienced as a photographer. And so it is with no small sense of fulfillment that I find my creative and academic endeavors mingling with one another as I begin to develop a curriculum in which students may explore their power to communicate through artistic processes.
As for my work as a photographer…I discovered early in my career as a photographer that I did not find commercial work fulfilling. Instead I am keenly interested in the relationship that is developed between my self and my work. All of my photographic work is personal to my experience as an individual, and I enjoy discovering the various ways by which an image may hold much more meaning than I could ever have hoped, or have known to hope. Sharing this perspective with students is something that I have done as a volunteer in various classroom settings and I hope to continue to find venues to develop these ideas.