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Mine is the Box Brownie story you've heard so often before: I fell in love with photography at an early age and never fell out. In my case this was helped along greatly by an uncle, an avid amateur photographer who gave me an enlarger and other camera gear along with lots of encouragement. He and my aunt traveled extensively in Asia and the Pacific, and stories of their trips contributed to my growing interest in experiencing other cultures.
My
early career centered around writing, the first job being creating
marketing and instructional collateral for brainwave biofeedback
equipment. Following that I was a copywriter in a radio broadcasting
company. I managed graphic arts projects in conjunction with writing,
and the combination of these things morphed into running a small ad
agency. Clients were primarily in industrial and technical fields. At
the same time I was also writing trade magazine articles and the
occasional travel piece.
Although I produced images when an ad, article or other project called
for it, I thought of myself as a writer primarily. Photography
remained an avocation.
In my early forties I decided no longer to write copy or manage printing projects, preferring to concentrate my energies instead on my first love, photography. This took the form of studio tabletop in behalf of food and beverage clients in addition to large-format architectural and industrial assignments. As an impetus for getting things right, nothing beats having schooled and seasoned art directors for clients. In retrospect I especially appreciate this period for what it did to hone my skills as a professional photographer.
As
my fifties approached, I relaxed a bit about whether to write and do
graphic design along with doing photography, especially since there
was an opportunity to travel to China and Thailand to produce
literature for a
yacht manufacturer based in Fujian Province. It was a good experience.
Living in private homes and spending much of my time with local Chinese
and Thais allowed me to experience their cultures in different ways
than is possible with short trips and hotel stays. One thing led to
another and for several years I was managing editor of a travel
magazine, a situation which sponsored several more overseas trips.
At present, I live in Europe and my main activity is travel-related photography and writing.