I received my formal education at the University of Toronto, graduating with a Master’s Degree in Urban and Regional Planning. In my third year of undergraduate studies I received a camera as a gift and began to learn everything I could about making images. My photographic training came through a variety of formal and informal venues, including courses at Humber College and Ryerson Institute of Technology; workshops with Fred Picker, Freeman Patterson and Elizabeth Siegfried; and private study with Paul Hoeffler.
Paul taught me how to print, develop film, use lighting and where and how to point a camera to communicate my thoughts and feelings about my world. He also introduced me to classical music, jazz and the taste of single malt whiskey. And while the conversations were far ranging – music, life, religion, society – the keystone was always photography, making images and learning how to select and be selective.
Elizabeth taught me how to make platinum prints, which had a profound impact on my photography that continues to this day. Up until her weekend workshop I only made silver prints, but I just couldn’t get the right tone. The first platinum print that I made under her tutelage was perfect and was exactly what I was looking for – I was hooked!
Over the last forty-five years I have had one foot in the corporate world and the other in the creative one. Being in two worlds provides me with a unique perspective that fuels my inquisitiveness and photographic interests and brings that same creativity to my corporate pursuits. I continue to focus my camera on the natural and urban environments and to a lesser extent on people. My landscapes are rarely the grand vista but offer a more intimate perspective where scale is often eliminated, resulting in an image that is not always immediately accessible. The environment is also a key factor in my images of people, how they react to it and relate to each other.
While as an artist my passion for landscapes and anything to do with water has not diminished, my focus has changed. I’m now even more attracted by the unique forms created by the motion of water as it interacts with rocks and other landforms, creating a myriad of shapes, textures and reflections. It is becoming less about place and more about how natural or man-made elements interact enabling me to create an image that will garner a second look.
I work with film cameras, like the abstract quality of black & white images and make hand-coated platinum prints, a historic print making process developed in the 1800s. I have had a number of solo and group exhibitions in galleries in Canada the United States and Europe. My work is included in a number of corporate and private collections as well as in the National Gallery of Canada, Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the City of Toronto Archives.
Exhibitions
Solo
2024 Gallery 44, Equivalence, Toronto, ON
2014 Markham House, City Building Lab., Mirvish Village People, Toronto ON
2014 Charlotte Hale Gallery, Mirvish Village People, Scotiabank Contact Festival, Toronto ON
2012 Academy of Spherical Arts, Art and Alchemy in a Digital Age, Toronto ON
2012 John Cleary Gallery, Art & Alchemy, Houston TX
2000 Alliance Française, Toronto, Occupants of the Garden, Toronto ON
2000 Dufferin Museum & Archive, Rivers in Season, Mulmur ON
1999 Spectrum Gallery, Rochester, NY
1998 Alliance Française, Botanicals & Riverscapes, Toronto ON
1982 Royal Trust Tower, Landscape/Riverscape, Toronto ON
1981 Mecene Gallery, Landscapes, Toronto ON
1981 Sacks Gallery of Photographic Art, Silver Prints, Toronto ON
Group
2022 Southeast Center for Photography, Black, White & Monochrome 2022, Greenville, SC
2022 Gallery 44, Impermanence, Toronto, ON.
2021 New York Centre for Photographic Arts, Abstract 2020-2021, New York, NY
2019 Bostick & Sullivan, The Handmade Photograph, El Museo Cultural, Santa Fe NM
2019 Texas Photographic Society, Urban Landscape, The Silos at Sawyer Yards, Houston TX
2014 Charlotte Hale & Associates Gallery, Scotiabank Contact Festival, Toronto ON
2013 Stephen Bulger Gallery, Summer Lovin, Toronto ON
2012 Houston Center for Photography, 2012 Print Auction, Houston TX
2011 The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, RMG Exposed Photography Auction, Oshawa ON. 2010
2010 The John Cleary Gallery, Found: Discoveries, Houston TX
2009 Art Square Gallery, The Power of a Smile/Scotiabank Contact Festival, Toronto ON
2007 Galerie Wild, Eiszeit (Ice-Age), Frankfurt DE
2007 422 Gallery, Contact Printers Guild, Phoenix AZ
2007 Camerawork Gallery, Contact Printers Guild, Portland OR
2007 Viewpoint Photo Art Center, Contact Printers Guild, Sacramento CA
2006 A Collected View: Ten Years of Photography Acquisitions, 1995-2005, City of Toronto Archives, Toronto ON
2005 Allen Lambert Galleria, Life of Water (PhotoSenstive), Toronto ON
2005 A Month of Photography, Mississauga Photo Festival, Mississauga ON
2005 Gallery de Boer, Radiations III, Owen Sound ON
2004 Allen Lambert Galleria, Destination Toronto (PhotoSensitive), Toronto ON
2004 Gallery de Boer, Radiations II, Owen Sound ON
2003 Harbourfront Gallery, Toronto Gridworks, Scotiabank Contact Festival, Toronto ON
2002 Alliance Française, Photo Echo; A Reunion of Artists, Toronto ON
2002 The Station Gallery, Platinum, Ajax ON
2001 Downeast Gallery, Newfoundland, Scotiabank Contact Festival, Toronto ON
2001 Stephen Bulger Gallery, White (A Group Exhibition), Toronto ON
1999 Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Platinum/Platine, Ottawa ON
1999 Art Gallery of Ontario (Print Rental Gallery), Horizontal Landscape, Toronto ON
1999 Academy of Spherical Arts, Off the Shoulder-Scotiabank Contact Festival, Toronto ON
1997 Stephen Bulger Gallery, Landscapes, Toronto ON
1996 Stephen Bulger Gallery, Gallery Artists Exhibit, Toronto ON
Collections
Private and Corporate Collections since 1981
National Gallery of Canada/Canadian Photography Institute, Purchase, 1997
City of Toronto Archives, Purchase, 1999
Alliance Française Gallery Collection, Acquisition, 2000
Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Purchase, 2010
Articles/Publications
Omni TV, Interview, Toronto Gridworks Project, 2004
Black & White Magazine, Photographer Spotlights, Issue 39, October 2005,
PhotoSensitive, Life of Water: As Seen by 100 Photographers, Toronto, 2005
Mirvish Village People, Limited Edition Publication, Pikto Publications, Gerald Pisarzowski, May 2014
Urban Landscape 2019, Texas Photographic Society, 2019