The Book Series My book collecting habit began in childhood, driven by the goal to complete the entire set of Nancy Drew hard covers, and the delight found in fancy boxed gift sets by favorite authors.I continue to acquire books not only for their content or prose, but also for their sensual and aesthetic qualities. My collection includes other people's diaries, scrapbooks, sketchbooks and photo albums. I am drawn to books that reveal a stranger's experiences and memories. Many of the books and albums contain collections of ephemera that reveal a lifetime of stories. These books often provide a glimpse in to the life of another person and another time. Nowadays, relocating and dodging piles of books is a daily domestic occurrence, one that my family has grown comfortably accustomed to. Some of the images in The Book Series is an exploration of relationships between these piles of books. The arrangements are intended to spark recognition, ignite memory, or invoke a presence. Some compositions are designed to celebrate the books sculptural qualities, in which the books never quite reveal their original purpose. Other times the narrative, such as “French Guidebooks” or “Summer Reading”, group as a collection. Once the books are shelved, these relationships are broken.

The Box Series began as a visual accounting of a friend's collection and later evolved into a study of my own collection of discarded packaging. I am fascinated by the ephemera that most people throw out without a second thought, including the boxes and bags and wrapping that are subservient to the items they contain. Some of these photographs can be read as arrangements of pure form, turning everyday vessels into objects of contemplation. I have made a practice of searching for the heroic in the mundane and for beauty in the ordinary. Additionally, I am intrigued by packages that have become iconic -- Tiffany’s blue boxes, Hermes’s orange boxes and Cartier’s red boxes. Since my vocational life often involves seducing the consumer, I take perverse pleasure in transforming the original intention of these items.

The Driftwood Series- The Driftwood collection was carefully amassed over a period of 5 years. A small bag of perfect specimens was gathered each year from the same beach in Mexico I visited on family vacations. On our return my family would often get irritated at the customary delays while being inspected by suspicious Customs Agents. The driftwood was rearranged into various glass vessels and bell Jars before it came to life in front of my Camera.

Nests Series - I instantly fell in love with these nests, and their amusing shapes while driving through the countryside of Northern India. At first blush I though they were some kind of oddly shaped gourd, and later the tree’s started to look like they were filled with drying socks. The Male Weaver bird builds his nest in order to attract a female to mate with. The nest typically has to be both structurally sound as well as high enough up to be away from predators. There was no end to the teasing from my Indian Guides as I went to great pains to collect, and then pack them for their journey home. Making images with an 8 X10 view camera is a contemplative and methodical process, which allows me to have total control over the shape and perspective of the objects, as well as the quality of light, which is always artificial. It allows me to emphasize some qualities and hide others, to pare down an object to its most essential, formal qualities. It often reveals details not otherwise seen. This process lets me make relationships and forms that may not exist in real life.