Selected Projects
PHOTOVARIOUS
The unique ability to see differently, to perceive or assign an image or likeness with seemingly different properties, attributes or interpretations, resulting in something wholly independent of another.
When I was asked to curate a photography show for the Long Beach Creative Group I knew right away I didn’t want to do a standard legacy show where we simply invited all the regular experienced photo people in the region to show their best shots.
Photography and photo imaging is changing so much and I wanted to bring together a collection of artists who today are actively breaking the boundaries in their process, approaching the camera and its role in photo imaging in new and compelling ways. It was also essential the work from each artist was presented extremely well and professionally produced with quality materials.
We had over 60 qualified submissions and in choosing the 9 artists we would subsequently exhibit, I wanted to make sure that collectively the art in the gallery was engaging to those who came to visit, that it spoke clearly and could draw the viewer in more closely.
Even in the 2020 pandemic, with the gallery open by appointment only the show was well attended. We were able to have small private gatherings for each of the artists and the work sold very well. On the strength of the work presented, some artists even sold work from their personal catalog beyond the exhibit itself.
Currently there are plans to produce a new PHOTOVARIOUS Exhibit in 2026.
Evening of Portraits
I invited people to send me a photograph of someone they took at a moment that was memorable to them. It was important only that the photo was clear and it had a personal meaning to them. For each evening's program [the event was repeated the following year] I assembled the portrait images and projected them on a screen in a darkened room. Each of the respective photographers then came to the front of the room to tell their story of the image we were seeing.
While most of the evening's 20 people participating were from the Los Angeles area, I also invited a few noted photographers from around the US and a National Geographic photographer from Portugal who had just returned from a children's project in Africa. Each of them sent a written commentary which was read in the room by a poet friend of mine.
In the telling of their story, the moments seemed to come back to each of the photographers so profoundly in their love, wild adventures, distant friends and sometimes the missing or a loss of a family member.
The beautiful surprise was how the candid stories brought everyone in room together afterward. Most of them did not know each other before the evening began.
This Evening of Portraits was curated again in 2023 and will continue.