January 2014
Artist’s Statement
I have added a new word to my professional vocabulary – Documentary. For the past twenty years I have “documented” the man- altered landscapes of Eastern Tennessee. The idea of working in the documentary genre never occurred to me until now. With these photographs I began to reflect on old and new projects. I could never tie portraits and landscapes together, but I now understand that both have more in common than I could have ever imagined. These photographs represent the very fiber that makes Eastern Tennessee a wonderfully varied place. In these portraits are farmers, artists, children and a truck driver. Actually, two are both farmer and artist. The photographs are gelatin silver prints made with a square negative. The four sides of the negative/image are equal as are the subject and viewer. I feel that this traditional medium, like my subjects, reflects the idea of tradition made new in the twenty-first century.
Biography
I am a fine art photographer who primarily uses both the 4×5 and medium format film cameras. I earned my MFA from East Tennessee State University in 1996. I have taught a variety of art and photography courses at Carson-Newman University since 1998. In 2007 I became a full time assistant professor, and in 2012 I was promoted to associate professor. I continue to work with the Man Altered Landscape project that I started in 1994. In the summer of 2013 I began a portrait project using the square format. The subjects are residents of East Tennessee. My work has been exhibited widely in the southeast and most recently in Colorado and Vermont.
