Born in Indiana in 1960, I learned two things: how to watch and how to disappear. By eighteen, I was working the graveyard shift at a Holiday Inn. I saw more secrets than a police station. Night after night, I checked in strangers who all wore the same expression. When morning came, I could never tell whether time had passed or simply looped back on itself.
At twenty-four, I moved west, chasing photography like a weak signal on a dying radio. California was supposed to be light. What I found was glare and shadow. School didn’t teach me photography per se—it taught me how to watch myself withdraw.
In 1990, I woke up in NYC. I taught students to see while my own vision narrowed, lectured until my voice no longer sounded like mine. My name occasionally appeared in galleries with reviews, but I no longer seemed attached. White rooms. Openings that felt like funerals with wine. In LA, I was commissioned to design five architectural façades—photographic illusions, confident surfaces stretched tight over something solid.
In 2016, I stopped chasing exhibitions and focused on books I had been quietly making. "Giving Head on the Unmade Bed: Titles for Works I’ll Never Make" catalogues unrealized ambitions and unresolved desire. The Leonard Cohen reference. A reminder that everything comes at a cost. "Amazing Grace" 10 1/2 volumes, screenshots of an EQ visualizer, charting Meryl Streep’s voice from "Silkwood." A song about redemption, stripped down to raw data. “Ballad of the Sad Young Men,” 12,860 images mapping Roberta Flack’s 1969 recording of men in a bar, grief repeating like a bad alibi.
My current project, "Mow," began as a book of photographs and evolved into a 12-inch vinyl album. Field recordings of a lawn being cut. No hidden meaning.
The process continues.
BOOK PROJECTS
Mow, 2026 (forthcoming 12” vinyl audio album)
Ballad Of The Sad Young Men, 2025
Giving Head On The Unmade Bed: Titles For Work I’ll Never Make, 2019
I Never Promised You Anything, 2009
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Craig Krull Gallery, Los Angeles, Works on Paper, 2015
Bruce Silverstein Gallery, NY, Tethered, 2011
Bruce Silverstein Gallery, NY, bird rabbit snake, 2007
Jan Kesner Gallery, Los Angeles, bird, rabbit snake, 2006
Houston Center for Photography, Houston, TX, Pretty, 2004
Here Theater Project, NY, Vines, set design, 2003
Jan Kesner Gallery, Los Angeles, bird, rabbit snake, 2003
Yancey Richardson Gallery, NY, Pretty, 2002
Yancey Richardson Gallery, NY, Lines of Sight, 1998
Jan Kesner Gallery, Los Angeles, bird, rabbit snake, 1997
Parsons School of Design, NY, Lines of Sight, 1996
Jan Kesner Gallery, Los Angeles, Seascapes, 1996
Thomas Barry Gallery, Minneapolis, Seascapes, 1996
Agnes Gallery, Birmingham, AL, Seascapes, 1996
Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, Seascapes, 1995
Yancey Richardson Gallery, NY, Seacsapes, 1995
Claremont Graduate School, CA, Water + Ice, 1993
Jan Kesner Gallery, Los Angeles, 1993
Jan Kesner Gallery, Los Angeles, 1991
Opus Gallery, Los Angeles, Flowers + Grass, 1990
Pasadena City Arts Commission, CA
Jan Kesner Gallery, Los Angeles, On Our Way to Heaven, 1990
Koslow Gallery, Los Angeles, 1990
Koslow Gallery, Los Angeles, 1989
Harbor College, Los Angeles, 1987
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Tiger Strikes Asteroid gallery, After Our Bodies Meet, 2021
Craig Krull Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, White on White, 2017
Flowers Gallery, London, UK, Small is Beautiful, 2017
Flowers Gallery, London, UK, Equivalents/Songs of the Sky, 2016
Re: Art Show, Brooklyn, NY, Re: Re: Re:, 2016
MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA, Photography in an Expanded Field, 2015
City Bird Gallery, NY, Posture, 2015
Louisiana Art and Science Museum, Baton Rouge, 2013
Brooklyn Rail, NY, Coming Together: Surviving Sandy, 2013
Schneider Museum of Art, Southern Oregon University, 2012
MANA Contemporary, Conference of the Birds, 2012
Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences, Charleston, WV, 2012
International Museum of Photography/Film, George Eastman House, The Unseen Eye, 2011
Cornell Fine Arts Museum, FL, The Edge of Vision: The Rise of Abstraction in Photography, 2011
Hostetter Gallery, The Pingry School, NJ, Bumping into Intangibles 2011
Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, The Edge of Vision: The Rise of Abstraction in Photography, 2010
United State Federal Reserve, Washington, DC, Recent Acquisitions, 2009
Pingyao, China, The Edge of Vision: The Rise of Abstraction in Photography 2009
Aperture Foundation, NY, The Edge of Vision: The Rise of Abstraction in Photography 2009
Danese Gallery, NY Forces of Nature 2009
Arts Council of Princeton, NJ, Beyond the Document: Color Field Photography 2009
Paris Photo, Bruce Silverstein Gallery, Bird Rabbit Snake 2009
Art Basel Miami, Bruce Silverstein Gallery, Bird Rabbit Snake 2009
Queens Museum, NY, Framing AIDS 2008
Art + Design Museum, Los Angeles, Enlightened Development 2007
Art Basel, Bruce Silverstein Gallery, Bird Rabbit Snake 2007
Hunterdon Museum of Art, Clinton, NJ, Pretty 2002
Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Aquaria 2002
International Academy of Fine Arts, Salzburg, Austria, Aquaria 2002
National Resource Defense Counsel, Oceans 2002
Larry Becker Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, [Some] Photography [Abstract] 2002
Yancey Richardson Gallery, NY, 2000
Andrew Kreps Gallery, NY, About Photography, 2000
1999 Wessel + O’Connor, NY, Female, 2000
Julie Saul Gallery, NY, Thin Air, 2000
International Center for Photography, NY, Seachange, 2000
San Diego Contemporary Art Museum, Seachange, 2000
Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ, Seachange, 1998
Marlborough Gallery, NY, Portraits 19th & 20th Century, 1998
Karen McCready Fine Art, NY, Oceans & Galaxies, 1998
Parsons School of Design, NY, Small Works V, 1996
Washington Center for Photography, Washington, DC, Swimmers, 1996
Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, Seascapes, 1995
Yancey Richardson Gallery, NY, H2O, 1995
Paul Morris Gallery, Hedrick Martin Institute, NY, 1995
Jan Kesner Gallery, Los Angeles, 1994
London Lighthouse for AIDS Research, UK, 1993
The Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA, Pasadena's Choice, 1991
Los Angeles Photography Center, 1991
Jan Kesner Gallery, Los Angeles, 1991
Los Angeles Photography Center, 1990
Marcuse Pheifer Gallery, NY, Photography, Etc. , 1987
Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, 1986
Zeus Trabia Gallery, NY, 1986
Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY, 1986 National Aperture ’86, NC, 1986
REVIEWS
The Boston Globe, June 18, At Mass MoCA, reimagining photography, 2015
ARTslant, June 13, A Chance at Redemption, Tethered, 2011
Reframing Photography: Theory and Practice, 2011
The Los Angeles Times, January 10, Venice-Ocean Front, 2010
E+ST+Laurent, Observations on Hight Art+Culture: Breathing Compositions, 2009
Recent Acquisitions, United States Federal Reserve, New York Sky, 2009
The Edge of Vision: The Rise of Abstraction in Photography, Aperture Foundation, 2009
100 New York Photographers, Schiffer Books, Cynthia Dantzic, Arrangements, 2009
Time Off, January 30, Beyond the Document: Color Field Photography, 2009
The New York Times, September 21, Little Sky Country, New York Sky, 2008
The Education of a Photographer, Allworth Press, 2006
Los Angeles Times, June 30, p. E24, bird rabbit snake, 2006 Concrete Photography, Gottfried Jager, Kerber Verlag, 2005 bird, rabbit, snake, monograph, Pragati Press, 2002
The New York Times, May 31, 2002
Village Voice, Choices, June 18, NY, 2002
Aquaria, International Academy of Fine Arts, Salzburg, Austria, 2002
Oceans, National Resource Defense Counsel, Seascapes, 2002
The New York Times, August 6, 1999
Village Voice, Choices, July 12, NY, 1999
Village Voice, Choices, July 5, NY, 1998
The Arizona Daily Star, March 6, Tucson, AZ, A World of Water and Sky, 1998
Sea Change, Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ, 1998
Legs, Donna Karen, 1997
Photography in New York, July cover, 1995
Village Voice, Choices, June 20, NY, 1995
The Pleasure Principle, monograph, 1994
Artweek, May 20, San Francisco, 1993
Artweek, November 1, San Francisco, 1990
Harbor Tides, Harbor College, Los Angeles, , 1988
Painted Ponies, Bill Manns, publisher, NY, 1987
Bulletin, California Institute of the Arts, 1987
The Los Angeles Times, July 17, 1987
Artbeat, KPAS Television, City of Pasadena, CA, 1987
GRANTS/AWARDS/COMMISSIONS
Venice Collaborative, Venice, CA 713/721 Venice Blvd. wEdge, 2016
Venice Collaborative, Venice, CA, Palms, 2015
Venice Collaborative, Venice, CA, 43/45 Brooks, 2012
Venice Collaborative, Venice, CA, Ocean Front, 2019
Aaron Siskind Fellow, NY, 2006
Hedda Sterne Residency, Amagansett, NY, 2001
City of Pasadena Arts Grant, CA, 1989
Alhmanson Scholarship, CA, 1985 Encore, Indianapolis, IN, 1984
LECTURES/SYMPOSIA
Paul Robeson Center for the Arts, Princeton, Beyond the Document: Color Field Photography, 2009
Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, 2006
Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY, 2003
School of Visual Arts, NY, Working Toward Nothing, 2000
Parsons, NY, Photogenic Imaging Architecture: Framing Images, 1999
Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ, Sea Change, 1999
Yancey Richardson Gallery, NY, Lines of Sight, 1999
Jan Kesner Gallery, Los Angeles, 1999
The Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA, 1991
Pasadena Arts Commission, CA, 1989
Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design, Los Angeles, 1987
COLLECTIONS
Los Angeles County Museum, CA
United States Federal Reserve, Washington, DC
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Center for Creative Photography, Houston, TX
The Venice Collaborative – Architectural Façades, Venice, CA
Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Aaron Siskind Foundation, NY
EDUCATION
California Institute of the Arts, MFA, 1986
Ball State University, Muncie, IN, BFA, 1984