My interest for photography goes back almost as far as I can remember; I recall as a young child being fascinated by my older brother's color darkroom in our basement, and by the time I was a teenager, I had converted my closet into a black and white darkroom. But it is not until I moved to New Orleans in 2004 that I discovered my photographic eye: after a nearly fatal car accident, all I could think of was taking pictures. The world looked different and I saw details I hadn't seen before. From there I started experimenting with all sorts of equipment and techniques, from digital to analog to alternative processes, which brought me to wet plate collodion. Wet plate collodion is undeniably an amazing process to capture someone's mood and emotions, and this has been an ongoing project of mine for the past few years. While these portraits were typically printed in albumen back in the late 1800's and early 1900's, I prefer the subtlety and tonal range of platinum-palladium and photogravure which remains at the core of most of my prints.
I now regard printmaking almost as important as taking photographs, and my interest has shifted from taking pictures to crafting images. Some may not see any difference between the two, but I do. I look at prints like objects, and I find that certain processes can greatly complement the aesthetic of a photograph, I enjoy working with labor-intensive and slow antique photographic processes, incorporating old techniques and equipment with new ones, and mixing them with contemporary or timeless subjects. I find that each of these mediums gives the specific portfolio a poetic impression yet tactile expression.
