My interest in photography began back in 1970 while I worked on the docks in Hampton Roads, Virginia as a member of the International Longshoreman's Association.  I attended night school at Old Dominion University in art history and with a growing interest in photography.  I purchased a Pentax K-1000 camera with three lenses, a 28mm, 50mm and a 135mm along with a roll of Tri-X black & white film at Sears and Roebuck on 21st street in Norfolk.  After working a grueling day loading and unloading ships and attending night school, I retired to the sanctuary of my home to study the manual for my new camera, eventually memorizing it by heart.  I froze my union card in 1974 and enrolled in the School of Visual Arts in NYC to further my study in photography.
     In 1979 I moved to Atlanta, GA. which was becoming a promising city with enormous opportunities for the visual arts.  I opened a portrait studio in Atlanta's theatrical district photographing stage plays and doing commissioned portrait portfolios for rising artists meeting people.  I met Kenney Rogers on his movie set 'Six Pack' filmed in Forsyth County, GA. where I did his dailies.  He expressed an interest in photography, and I taught him darkroom techniques and tutored him in the art of hand coloring his images. 
     I dedicated myself to learning everything I could on the fine art of black and white photography and purchased a large format (4 X 5) Wista camera studying under master photographer Neil Chaput 'de Saintonge at his Atlanta school, Southeastern Center for Photographic Arts.  At Neil's request, I began teaching and soon became the school's Nature Program Coordinator conducting photography workshops on Georgia's barrier islands such as St. Simon, Little St. Simon and Cumberland.
     My work has been published in numerous magazines and in three hardbound books depicting vanishing landscapes in rural Georgia, North and South Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia.  One of my strongest images was featured in a body of work titled 'We the People' at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.  Another photograph of mine was recognized in an international exhibit in Niepce', France.  I've worked on three Civil Rights projects with Atlanta's master photographer Reginald McGhee and Alabama's Poet Laureate Lizetta LaFalle-Collins of Tuskegee Institute covering conflicts concerning Civil Rights versus the Ku Klux Klan.  I also worked on a project with Reginald McGhee on 'Religious Icons Found in Rural Southern Homes' and was the leading darkroom technician for Reginald's vast collection of glass plates taken by James Van der Zee at the turn of the century titled, 'Harlem on my Mind'.
     I still use 35mm and 4 X 5 black and white film and after fifty-five years have stayed true to a documentary style, I taught myself studying pioneer F.S.A. photographers of the 1930's and 40's such as Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange and Eugene Smith.  I use my darkroom to hand-process my film and print my images on silver-gelatin, fiber base paper from Croatia using an antique Besler Omega enlarger I purchased in 1980 from the Fulton County Crime Lab in Atlanta for a mere $75.00.
     After many years of exciting photographic adventures, I have finally retired but will continue my personal projects.  I feel humbled and very fortunate to have had the pleasure of meeting, learning and working with so many great photographers of my time.