I live a naked life which started when I was very young. See I have always loved the camera but never knew the path it would take me. Being an artist, any medium held a message but photography had a different quality. It is a moment in time frozen as only I saw it allowing others to the world as only I see it.
Painting, sculpture, nor pen and pencil hold the power to capture the truth of the world as film as seen through the eye of an artist. It is a powerful tool and as I was in school during the late 80’s, the camera became my primary tool.
I started to shoot professionally in 1987 when I was hired by Front Cover Models, an Atlanta based agency run by a former Arleen Wilson model from New York City. I found a passion with Fashion Photography and started Aperture Studio’s. As time passed, this studio morphed as I merged with other studios, joined others, quite to work for experience with printing labs and moved around gaining experience.
But the industry is a political game and for years as I worked to break in, I was constantly improving my work but I was also finding I was not happy with the direction my life was heading. Suddenly an opportunity presented itself and I found myself on the road to the military. See, I was not satisfied with my life. Something was lacking but I did not know what it was and was willing to give up everything to find out who I was, so I sold my entire life (camera equipment), replacing it with a small Rico point and shoot camera. I the set out for Germany, headed for what I thought would be a 20 year journey.
1995 was a rebirth, I fell in love with Germany but later that year deployed to Hungary, and then into Bosnia. It was a Christmas to remember, one where I learned how fragile life is and how strong my will to survive can be. It became a rebirth where this artist stripped his shell and became naked, open to the sensations of life. Only I would be aware of this until much later in my life.
1998 brought another great change in my life, an accident in which I became a chronic pain suffer. It was to my surprise that my OT physician recommended I purchase a SLR and start taking photographs. His thoughts after talking to me were that it would be a great focus to help center my mind for pain management. He also felt it would help in my recovery.
I started to look for fashion models but in Manhattan Kansas? Instead I chose the nude female form since there were an abundance of young army wives and college students willing to get naked for the camera and for free. Even after my PCS back to Germany I continued to shoot the nude, filling my portfolio with images.
In 2000 after I was separated I restarted my photography but only on a part time bases. I started PPS International. At first I worked out of Atlanta and then when I got a job working in Hanau Germany, moved its operations to Germany. Its focus was fine art to erotic nudes for publication in Addition to freelance Editorial and Commercial photographer. This allowed me to post my work online, to present my work at the Frankfurt Book Fair and to have my work Published by Edition-Skylight. Yes, I have a book of my fine art and Erotic works in a book title Hot Babes. From front to back, I have filled this book with hot works of models from the former Eastern Bock Countries and this work was inspired from my experience in 1995 and 1998.
See, if I was not in Bosnia or if I was not injured in 1998, I would not have been place in a situation where I would have found the beauty in the erotic form of the female figure. I turn the perverse into art and took the porn out of the images, showing that love and respect can be presented even in the most guarded of subjects. It comes down to my new appreciation for life, to my new appreciation for my own and my love for the female form and respect for her.
Now I have suffered again in 2009, another setback in my life and my photography has taken another change. I am in the middle of full establishment of Troop Photography in Savannah servicing Atlanta, Miami, New York, Frankfurt, Prague, Paris and London. The work I produce is dark, shows the forgotten, passion for the gothic, focuses upon the unseen and shows passion of those who love. It is about emotion and new life.
To be a photographer today is exciting and I look forward to sharing my work with you. I encourage you to place take a look at my webpage. Here is some of my work. But of interest to you might be the works under Abstracts. These are in camera manipulations based upon my PTSD feelings. They gauged how I felt and I will admit, I can no longer shoot them, I have grown out of that 2 year period which is a healthy sign in my life.
