While traveling in Japan, I experienced what the Japanese call Shinrin Roku or “forest bathing”, a term that refers to the healing power of nature. This act of aligning with nature dramatically altered my photographic vision. Originally a print maker, I have always constructed my layered photographic images out of a wide variety of sources, but for the first time, it was all taking place in front of my lens. All the complex layers of the natural world were manifesting before me and felt if I were witnessing the “real” landscape for the first time. My visit to the Golden Temple in Kyoto during a snowstorm literally startled me. The role of my camera had been transformed to show me the world in its sublimity.
This series has two parts, the images I captured in Japan and then complimentary self-portraits that reflect my physical self in the midst of a Shinrin Roku. In these portraits, I am one with nature--the human and nature colliding as they reflect of a heightened awareness of the power of the natural world.
I fell in love with photography, and my teacher, in my junior year
at Tyler Art School. Each student was
given an Olympus Pen W camera that shot 78 wonderful grainy photos per
roll. As opposed to a class focusing on
technique, the stress was on learning to see …a la Cartier–Bresson.
I spent my youth on the east coast, having been raised in New
Jersey, and received a BFA in printmaking at Tyler. With savings from my first job, I bought a
Nikkormat and printed my pictures at home in a makeshift darkroom. After traveling the world, including a year
living in Mexico, and later working in New York City, I eventually settled in
California where I have remained. I
received a Masters Degree in Arts with a printmaking major from SDSU and then
began my teaching career.
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