This is a personal gallery about my path in photography, my journey.

It is a collection of photographs, not strictly chronologic, that are important to me, which I put together after I recently was asked, "What does photography mean to you?" 

Here is my answer:

In Eugen Herrigel’s, Zen and the Art of Archery, the Master, Kenzo Awa, explains that “the art of archery means a profound and far-reaching contest of the archer with himself.”  Photography means the same to me.  Photography is my portal to mindlessness, an opportunity to let go of daily life and completely immerse in non-self, to become the picture.

Cartier-Bresson said, “we must never think while taking a picture.”  As photographers in control of the image, we make decisions, but they should be intuitive.  It is imperative during the moment of exposure to connect with the subject, unencumbered by the mechanics of photography.  Operation of the camera becomes subliminal; it need not be a conscious act.  As Salgado said, "There comes a moment when it is no longer you who takes the photograph."  Sam Abell said, "My best work is often almost unconscious and occurs ahead of my ability to understand it."  The opening of the shutter, just as the loosing of an arrow, should come as a slight surprise.  

Again, Cartier-Bresson expressed this beautifully:  "To take a photograph is to hold one's breath when all faculties converge in the face of fleeing reality."

The highest form of photography is when it becomes a deeply personal exploration of how we perceive the world, which ultimately is an exploration of self – an autobiography.  We become the subject and it becomes us, through the medium of photography.  

Photography has been a lifetime of lessons learned, things realized, truths revealed.  It has been a contest of me, the photographer, with myself.

This is my autobiography.