Artist Statement

"I firmly believe that we become deaf, blind, and mute

without music and art as forms of communication."

My goal in photography is to capture a photograph that evokes an emotion or directs the viewer to write their own story using my pictures. My aesthetics and style lean towards a beautiful, sublime, low-light background setting with vivid color contrasts in the forefront. I find beauty in the dark while shooting a concert, in a studio, or on an adventure. Especially during a clear night, to capture stars over time to create star trail photographs. I also have been known to take a concert photograph and turn it into an abstract that leaves viewers wanting to know how I produced the piece and what I used to create it.

My influences are Annie Leibovitz, Lindsay Adler, and Britt Bowman. Annie inspired me even as a kid with her concert photography stories and later with her creative editorial shoots that provided a pun between her sitter and intended objects. Lindsay inspires me with her couture editorial shoots which have a dark background with the use of multiple vivid color gels in the foreground. Her style pushes me not to be afraid to use multiple strobes and gel colors at once to create a dramatic effect. Britt influences my current style of concert photography. She captures so much energy that the viewers want to be part of the experience.

Working in different low-light settings, I have to use post-production workflows to enhance colors without exaggerating them too much, crop for composition, remove unwanted objects, and stack photographs in Photoshop to create time movement with star trails with light painting.