ARTIST STATEMENT:

I would like to tell you my story and what nature photography means to me.

I made a U-turn in my life that baffled my friends and family, as I had the makings for “success”. I had a physics graduate degree, worked as a research scientist at Washington State University in the Palouse, and then in a research laboratory in Canada. A promising career lay ahead. But it was during my time in the beautiful Palouse, and the endless forests and mountains of nearby Idaho, that I discovered, that I came to terms with my passion for nature and its infinite beauty. I had found my true calling. I had no choice, it was the only way I could live my life, and with that realization, I passionately, perhaps obsessively, pursued my dream. Let me explain:

If I had to define true happiness, it would be what I feel when I climb on that crest and an expanse of mountains, forests and valleys unfolds before me, when I step out early and take my first deep breath, when the morning sun breaks through clouds and paints the land in intense, warm colors, when that salty ocean breeze first touches my face.

Nature fills me with awe, excitement and at the same time profound inner peace. And every time I feel a deep need to capture what I see. For myself, to render eternal that ever so brief moment of beauty and serenity, to save it from the unceasing torrents of time, but also because I want to share it with those who haven’t witnessed. I have a passion for photography not only in trying to create compelling aesthetics, but mostly in portraying adequately the splendour of our planet’s precious remaining wildernesses, and the plentiful beauty close to home.

Beautiful light happens rarely, and it takes immense time, effort and of course luck to be blessed with the right conditions. This means hiking and driving many hours in the dark, be it in the early morning or after sunset, whether in biting cold or hot, humid environs. Rather than a burden to me, it fills me with a wonderful sense of excitement, and these are the times I feel truly alive.

Our natural world holds infinite artistic potential. Nature often graces us with moments where tones, colors, shapes and textures combine to create aesthetic worlds we could not have conceived of. Moments which often are short lived and may never repeat, but in their beauty, in their dreamlike, evocative nature, are eternal.

All too often we let these moments pass by. Our vision is too limited, we are not mindful enough, we do not look with enough intent.

My photography is inspired by the visual arts, especially paintings, a medium in which artists can express multifaceted, powerful, boundless vision. Paintings inspire, empower me to see the world with a broader vision, to recognize more of nature’s artistic potential, allowing less of it to pass by. I aspire for my photographs to take on a painterly quality, a quality that is difficult to define but immediately noticeable, and I hope that some of my images have reached that goal.

Thank you for taking the time to read!