Our daily lives are full of stress, anxiety and pressure. There’s never enough time to do the things we must do and much less time to do the things we would like to do. How often do we take a moment to see what’s in front of us, to see the special places.  Sometimes I do take the time. Sometimes I push everything else away and just look. Sometimes I’m even lucky enough to have my camera with me.

I have been photographing my world for over 38 years.  During that time I have explored my immediate neighborhood, and have also been fortunate enough to travel to exotic places throughout Latin America and Europe, capturing images with my camera along the way. 

Inspired by a recent trip to Italy, I began to notice the unique fountains and statues in South Florida that adorn the yards of our single family homes. Although the subject matter is the same, the lions, fountains and statues in myneighborhood take on a completely different character. The scale, placement and unusual juxtaposition of the concrete structures create a wonderful flavor unique to our area. For the past two years I spent many of my morning commutes and weekends looking for these subjects to create this new photographic series.

All of the images in this body of work are composed in a circle for a couple of reasons. While using a telescope, I realized the power of the circle in directing the viewer through a composition like a target.  Secondly, the circle served as an homage to George Eastman’s first Kodak camera whose  masked images introduced small round photographs to the masses.

For this new body of work, I have combined the worlds of digital and analog photographic technology. I shoot the images with a digital camera and turn them into black and white photographs that I print in a traditional black and white darkroom.  This is possible through the use of a digital enlarger that lets me come full circle back intothe comfort of a wet darkroom.

After I print the images on traditional gelatin silver paper, I apply photographic oils by hand using cotton swabs and toothpicks. Besides making each image one of a kind, the carefully applied coloring adds to the fictional quality of the image and hopefully makes real the world I witness.