​

​

My life defies any linear recounting. I’ve lived in four different 

countries, held jobs in several disciplines, and parented, step parented and foster parented 10 amazing children. Looking back on my life, it feels far more serendipitous than planned and more episodic than sustained. 

 

The images posted here, however, speak to two deep loves that run like currents through most of my life. The first is a deep and abiding love and connection to the natural world and to forests in particular. I grew up in a beautiful leafy New Jersey suburb and spent my summers hiking and backpacking in the Catskills. Now I live in Northern California, blessed to be hiking the magnificent coast redwood forests and equally beautiful oak-studded hills of Sonoma Valley. In between, assorted jobs and schooling allowed exploration of the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa, the Jura Mountains in Switzerland, the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney and

then back to the lake dappled Adirondacks of New York State. For at least 5 decades, forests have been my refuge, my spiritual home, my meditative sanctuary. 

 

The other linking thread that runs through my life is photography. I learned to see while leading a backpacking trip across the country while trying to capture the natural world with a camera. Though I had a successful career as a Systems Engineer/Designer for IBM and AT&T, and later as a Development Director for a non-profit, photography remained a constant in my life. I received certification as a professional photographer from the Germain School of Photography and worked as a photographer for New York Mayor, Ed Koch. Later I opened my own photography business and taught, published and exhibited my work. 

 

Through all this, somehow my deep connection to nature and my love of photography remained largely separate until this project. During the years I worked as a photographer, my preferred medium was black and white and my principal subject matter was people, either through portraits, or captured in candid moments of everyday life. The current project could not be more different…or better reflect these two abiding loves of my life.