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I’ve been fascinated by photography since the time I was 5 years old and would sit on the floor pulling out each photo album neatly arranged on the bottom shelf in the family den. I could sit there for hours looking at all the photographs - old snapshots of my parents when they were young, formal studio portraits of my grandparents, lots of great uncles, aunts and cousins, and the photographs of me and my siblings as babies and toddlers. I’m now the keeper of these albums and have added more to the collection - new images arranged in new albums. Although my fascination with photography began with these printed portrayals of a life I already knew or had heard of through countless family stories, my interest with the medium expanded beyond the literal into the aesthetic and the technical. Through my professional career at various acclaimed photography collections and institutions (see bio), I came to appreciate how photography has been on a continual evolution since the beginning of the medium. Most recently, with the introduction of digital photography, we now live in a world with so much photography that it’s hard to understand how to define the artistic medium with the ubiquity of the smartphone. To me, this is where “photography” gets interesting: when the creative interpretation and expression that strengthens all photographic work rises to the top. In today’s work where contemporary artwork often contains photographic processes what should we call this work? Is it “photography” or is it “mixed-media” or is it “collage” or is it “alternative process”? Or is it a combination of several descriptors? The frequently used term that encompasses all of these works is Photo-based art. Essentially, photography has become another tool in the artist’s tool chest to express an idea or emotion or thought.
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