The last few years have been influential in changing my sense of purpose. As expected, my background is different than others. With this return to school, I have an opportunity to change, or at least modify my personal creative process.  

The MFA title is secondary to my motivation. I am entering my 25th year of teaching/mentoring photography students. In a way, I've been in school just as long, learning new things. Evolving. Now  I have a desire to create for me.  To actualize my vision. Degas was quoted as saying "Everyone has talent at 25. The difficulty is to have it at 50." As another birthday cycle approaches, I intend to challenge Degas' position.

A lot of me is old school: Composition. Light Manipulation.  Craftsmanship.  120 and 4x5 film formats. Black and White. Print Quality. Classic Iconic Visual Impact. Influences include: Penn, Avedon, Bresson, Michals, Steichen, Horst, Frank, Newman, Hurrell, Steiglitz, Adams, Capa, and Newton. And late models: Leibovitz, Watson, some of Ritts, more of Seliger. Some recent discoveries include:  Gertrude Kasebier, John Rawlings, Ruth Harriet Louise and Oleg Oprisco.

Being around creative people on a daily basis is refreshing and challenging. What I have found is that we are creatures of habit, and have a tendency to seek a comfort zone. Something familiar. Something easy.  In order to grow beyond one's immediate reach, there needs to be a genuine sense of curiosity. Of motivation. Of exploration. 

Old habits are hard to change. I intend to pursue a "think different" approach without ignoring the integrity of my old school training. One thing I've noticed is that memorable photography falls into five categories: Beautiful, Interesting, Important, Innovative and Fun. If I can have at least one of the five in every piece, I'll feel some sense of success, regardless of the subject matter.