Premio Combat Prize

The series Aluminum in the Light is a subset of the Radical Play series. The radical in radical play references both a return to roots and a departure from the norm. Radical play is a simple and direct approach to creating alchemy/art. It bypasses the ego and mind and directly addresses the emotions, the senses and the soul.
I met the model Katrin Dohse, the model in this series, in late spring of 2015 and liked her freshness, poise and strength. She also had, I soon learned, superb concentration. Whether spilling beans from a cup or twirling with fabric, paper or aluminum foil she was adept, elegant and playful in her execution of each motion. We shot this series at an abandoned warehouse. The space had dirt floors and skylights in some areas. The skylights we used were all just the right kind of dirty.
My approach with art is to simultaneously embrace intent and openness, two poles of a polarity that allows the flow of alchemy to occur. My intent is strong, but never specific. I expect surprise and serendipity. This can only occur outside of my control. My openness is what allows the alchemical flow of energies beyond my ken. In a sense, it feels like I am discovering a pre-existing object rather than creating something. In a sense I am like a wire conducting electricity or a lens conducting light.
Since the 1970s I have pursued improvisation and play as a means of achieving alchemy and its handmaidens synchronicity and serendipity. I have pursued this across numerous art-forms, including photography, music, video and painting.
In 1978, I purchased a Contax RTS 35mm camera with a Zeiss lens. Between 1979 and 1986 my work was published in several Chicago magazines, displayed in numerous exhibitions and purchased for the collection of the Standard Oil Company of Indiana. My first solo show debuted during this time at Northern Illinois University.
I received a BA in Film from Columbia College in 1980. I subsequently co-founded the experimental music groups Random Touch and Bosch. From 1999 to 2012 I performed on and released 17 musical products, ranging from vinyl records to CD/DVD packages. My experimental videos were exhibited at many major festivals from 2003 to 2007. My video You Define Single File was nominated for the Golden Gate Award at the 47th San Francisco International Film Festival.
In 2008 I returned to exhibiting my photographs. Initially these were very large prints from medium format film negatives. In 2013 I migrated to primarily using digital media. I since won the Bronze Award from Art Forward in 2015 and 2016 and the Cash Jury Prize from Art Fomenar in 2017. I have won many competitions resulting in numerous exhibitions. Recently I exhibited outside the USA for the first time, first in Belgrade, Serbia and then in Rome, Italy. This September I have ten works in a four-man photography exhibit.