About Me
I grew up in New York City, where I also attended college. I then moved to California for graduate school, eventually earning advanced degrees in Philosophy and Psychology. In 1975 I began teaching at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico and eventually moved to its Annapolis campus. I spent his entire teaching career at St. John’s, teaching in its “great books” program. After I retired in 2021 I began to study photography seriously. I have shown my work in many places, including the Maryland Federation of Art, Oxford (PA) Arts Alliance, Glen Echo Park, Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital, and elsewhere. One of my works was purchased by Anne Arundel Community College for its permanent collection. My wife and I live in Annapolis and have two grown children.
Most of my work is digital, but I have also spent some time with black and white film. What drew my interest to photography (and to visual art in general) is my conviction that paying attention to what one sees can provide us with new ways of seeing and open doors to new ways of being. I have always been interested in perception, attention, noticing, and language. My senior thesis in college explored some philosophical foundations of perception. My dissertation in graduate school was on J. L. Austin, a philosopher who studied the connection between seeing and language. I also wrote a book on Ludwig Wittgenstein, Fat Wednesday: Wittgenstein on Aspects, another foray into the intricacies of seeing and speaking. My photos are eclectic, which means they fall into several groups. I especially enjoy street photography. I mostly do not stage my photos. Rather I want to use the camera to see better. That is, for me the camera is a tool for paying attention. I try to let subjects find me, rather than the other way around. Photography has helped me become more appreciative of all kinds of art. After I curated a show on “outsider artists” who use photography in their work, I became more interested in outsider art in whatever form it takes.