REVEALING THE INVISIBLE
I fell in love with photography in 1974—or, more to the point, I became infatuated with working in the darkroom. My images weren’t anywhere near special, but I spent hours in a cloud of toxic fumes and vapors, watching the alchemy of images emerge from blank pieces of paper. I felt like a magician. Anyone who has worked in a darkroom knows that feeling well. But I abandoned my darkroom in the mid-1980s for color transparency film, the choice for a working magazine professional at that time. Now, like most of us, I use digital cameras and work in the “grayroom” (yes, my studio walls are painted 18 percent gray). I still feel as if I’m creating magic, only now it’s on a computer screen. “A little bit of saturation here, some burning and dodging there, a bit more contrast overall.”
From the start, I led a peripatetic life, working as a mountain and river-rafting guide in the U.S., which progressed to guiding treks and private expeditions to places like Nepal, Bhutan, China, central Asia—you name it. From there, I was propelled into the life of a full-time photographer. Travel and photography became my passion, one intertwined with the other. I’ve always chosen places that make me a bit uneasy, places that challenge me. I’ve the same philosophy for my photography—to
