I have been interested in photography for as long as I can remember. I always enjoyed the feeling of pressing the shutter button of a camera. In high school (Roosevelt High, Chicago), I was a yearbook member; it was fun taking snapshots of my classmates. During my undergrad years (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) I spent many a day in my darkroom (tub and sink); the smell of fixer, red lights, and clothes pins, along with photo paper are ingrained in my memory. Grad School was much the same, though I had a difficult time transcending from film to digital cameras. Technology changes-
My formal photography background, was shaped by art teachers and professors, who allowed me to set in on their classes. They were not only kind, introspective but demanding. Going out on shots with them allowed me to understand “light.” As one professor stated, “If you want the beauty of life, understand light, shadows, dawn, and dusk. Understand what life has to offer (composition), grow by observing, expand by taking shots (over and under-exposure), be critical, but be kind to yourself and in the end, you will get the hang of the art.” “Compare and contrast everything, understand why one photo is different than the next,” another stated. And my best friend, who taught film, “Live, no one can truly tell a good story unless they have lived, everything else is a bust of light-age some- then look back.”