Form is something that has always fascinated me. For as long as I can remember, I have been looking at and studying the forms of the various things that I have encountered throughout my life. Whether it is a tree trunk, the dresser in my room, a booth at a restaurant or a body in motion, I will study it to find the best possible angles and the best and most interesting compositions.
I really did not start having a real passion for visual art until I took my first photography class in my junior year in high school. I fell in love with it almost immediately. I am really not sure how to explain the feeling that I had when I got to work in the darkroom for the first time. I guess it just felt as if I was in the right place.
As far as my influences go when it comes to my art, I definitely draw from my past and the place that I grew up in; Fork Union, Virginia. The F.U., as my friends and I like to call it, has had such an influence on my life, and through that, my art. I enjoy taking photographs of the people and places that influenced me as a child and that still inspire me now.
I am a purist when it comes to photography. When I am printing in the darkroom, I like to have the black border around the pictures to show that I did not crop anything out when I printed them. I do prefer working in the darkroom to working with digital simply because, to me, nothing compares to the feeling I get when I put that piece of paper in the developer and watch that image appear. It is something I will never get tired of and that I look forward to seeing for a long time.