Menagerie

. I studied art, literature, and horseback riding at Sweet Briar College and earned a Masters degree in literature from the University of Georgia while also studying photography and horse science. I do not live on a farm or ride horses now, so instead I create my own menagerie of animal photographs. When I photograph animals I use the patience and understanding of animal behavior that I developed studying horseback riding and animal science. I want people to feel empathy for animals, and I attempt to draw the viewer into the image with a quality of mystery, what the French pictorial photographer Robert Demachy describes as “something all important, extremely difficult to express in words. If you can see it there is no use in trying to describe it. If you do not it is useless also, for you would not understand” (On the Straight Print