Excerpt from my new book…

Dignity No Matter What: Collector Edition

Griffin Museum of Photography

Bildersturm, the premiere online platform for contemporary photography books, FEATURES Dignity No Matter What.

Dignity No Matter What: The Light Within Collector Edition was recently juried into the 12th Annual Photobook Show presented by the Davis Orton Gallery, Hudson New York and the Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, Massachusetts.

Happy to announce that my portrait, Attitude, will be included in the the up coming show November 13-27.

The portrait making process conveys emotions of the moment quite well if made with care and sensitivity. But what about after the you leave the subject?

Now in the permanent collection of Praxis Photo Arts Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

My friend Zeke...Blues/Folk singer extraordinaire, scholar from Memphis...recorded at Sun recording Studios in the same room Elvis Presley and so many others recorded their hit songs... passed away last year.

I love meeting new people. Walking around Savannah, I met Eric and Todd on the Riverfront. I stopped and talked a while and learned part of their story.

GROUP EXHIBITION

August 21-September 4, 2021-One of the pieces from my Introspection series will be shown at the PRAXIS Photo Arts Center in Minneapolis in an exhibition called The Artist Intervenes.

We were an odd pair ambling the city streets. He was picking up soda cans to recycle and I was taking pictures as we walked. Along our journeys, he spoke of many things and introduced me to many people on the streets.

Why the text? Why the montage? Why did you do it this way?

Occasionally, I would point my lens at my grandmother and she would modestly block the lens with her hand. But, she never knew when I had film in my camera and when I didn’t, so this made her a bit apprehensive.

“Mother and Child” is now in a permanent museum collection.

I'm featured in this month's Dek Unu Fine Photography Magazine!

I am happy to announce that the Museum of Art-Deland in Florida has acquired one of my portraits for their permanent collection..

Michael, 2020, Renato Rampolla 24" x 24"

I didn't think I could actually get through his people to actually meet him. It was a long shot but I didn't have anything to loose. He was surrounded by a wall of people.

Last time I told you I would talk about meeting Bob Hope...

This is me at 20 in Ybor City, Florida.

At 20, I thought I had it all figured out only to realize that at that moment, I didn’t know anything. Art only represented the human condition and that is best represented by utilizing the human face or figure. At least, that’s what I believed at the time. My encounter with a man I met on the streets was a turning point for my growth which would lead to so many other meaningful forms of art which I never appreciated before meeting "Socrates" as I named him.

I received a few questions about my newest pieces, specifically the two triptychs at the end of the Introspection series on my website.

"Is this a new series?"

"They are so different from what you have done in the past. What is the inspiration?"

We had a full house but a lot of people could not attend the lecture due to the COVID spacing restrictions the museum had to abide by.

The little surprise I mentioned earlier was that the museum and I put together a little 10 minute video of some of the back stories behind the portraits. Personally, I hate seeing myself on camera but it is important to get these stories out.