Bio

Short Form:

Carbon based life form current residing in the fine and fragrant neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY.  More specifically I live on the 3rd floor of an overpriced brownstone in a neighborhood that people primarily remember as the scene of a riot.

There are two cats as well.  The human resident is not nearly as snappy a dresser on a day to day basis as the photograph to the left would imply.

Long Form:

I was born in California in 1975 and grew up in a variety of suburbs in south Orange County immersed in one of the most banal cultures ever vomited up by humanity. With the lack of better options for rebellion I became a nerd.  The other, more prestigious option was an addiction to methamphetamines and/or alcohol and the wearing of tight jeans.   Despite selecting the less chic option I was able to leave The OC for brighter, more culturally profound pastures for my college education.

And I was dumb enough to pick a school in rural Ohio.

After graduating from Oberlin I got swept up in the dotcom thing and moved to NYC making the first intelligent decision of my life.  Within three months I was getting into the nightlife and club scene where I met all the pervert clowns, goths, queers, go-go dancers, and bizarre scenery I had always dreamed of.   Then a few years later I got laid off and as I had a lot of free time on my hands started taking pictures with a digital camera I had picked up when I was gainfully employed.

I had the most experience with nightlife so I started taking pictures of performers in clubs and sharing the results with them.  This granted me a great deal of positive feedback as most performers have to deal with flashes popping off in the face constantly and they never see the results.   After finding gainful employment again I upgraded to a Canon 300D and started learning about exposure and how to use photoshop more effectively.  In the first year and a half I broke the camera twice from overuse as I started to explore street photography as well.

On a whim I had started experimenting with using black and white film and taught myself how to develop film using a FAQ I found somewhere on the internet.  Soon afterward I purchased a scanner after learning that labs couldn’t be bothered to do their job properly.  Eventually I took a darkroom course at ICP and decided to sell my digital rig and devote myself entirely to the pleasures of rodinal.