After graduating,
I joined the Air Force and was placed in the position of
"Still Photographer". This was an on-the-job-training
experience in that I was taught by my fellow
photographers as well as study courses. I worked in a
large photo lab that did journalism, portraits,
photocopying, blueprints,
photostats, aerial
photography and generally anything that someone needed
in the range of photography. I was stationed in
Washington State, West Pakistan and then Texas before my
discharge after four years.
My photography
career took a twist for awhile, I worked at a film
production company in Dallas, Texas (1968), moved to New
Jersey and sold portrait packages (I was terrible as a
salesperson), and then on to Washington DC.
It was in D.C.
that some of my most interesting photographic
experiences began. I went to work for the Library of
Congress as a photographer and worked in the
studio/darkroom. I got to work directly from Civil War
photographer Matthew Brady's original glass negatives in
making prints, worked with Farm Security Administrations
depression era photographers negatives, photographed the
Gutenberg Bible and a variety of other photographic and
printed historical materials.
From there I took
a position as a Black/White printer with Still Photo,
Inc. They had a contract with NASA and we did all of the
photographs from Apollo 11 (first man on the moon) and
Apollo 12. This company was later sold to Dunlap Photo,
Inc. and I continued my work there on NASA contracts for
about a year.
The next move was
to Washington State, where I had lived previously during
high school. I enrolled at Everett Community College and
took a two year program in Fine Art
Photography, this was my best educational
experience in photography. They offered a variety of
courses like portraiture, journalism, sequential
photography, zone system, densitometry, commercial
photography, etc. During the summers we took special
projects classes that took us to the Oregon Coast,
Olympic Rain Forest, Spokane Worlds Fair and Central
Washington. After receiving an Associates Degree (1976),
I continued to take an arts oriented curriculum for
another 18 months and did some freelance photography
work.
In 1977 I moved
to Spencer, WV. and began to
establish a business doing freelance commercial and
wedding photography. My personal
work has appeared in national magazine publications and
have three book covers. I have had my work
exhibited in a variety of places (see exhibits), was a
partner in a stock photography agency (AppaLight)
and occasionally provide private photography lessons.
Over the past six
years I have been documenting a Pentecostal
Serpent-Handling church (Church of the Lord Jesus) in
Jolo, West Virginia. This was initially funded through
the WV Commission on the Arts. The project and has led
to life-long friendships with the congregation and
several Mc Dowel County families.
