About
"Are you excited?...Are you excited?" The Ikea Entertainment Liaison asked.
She had posed this question with genuine enthusiasm, every four or five minutes since we'd met. My jazz band had just finished setting up in the store cafeteria. I wasn't excited. Performing to a sparsely filled cafeteria of unsuspecting diners who were just there for the meatballs, didn't hold the same allure as a smokey club. The environment is important. It made me realize my love of music is as dependent on the images created in my mind as the notes being played. I'm driven by visuals: colors, shapes, lines, expression, culture.
Along with music, I grew up with photography and painting in the house. Ansel Adams and Andrew Wyeth were as important as Miles Davis and The Beatles. As I turned further toward photography, I saw the parallels of line and color, energy, emotion, atmosphere, and a million other things that both disciplines share. Combined with a fascination for people, who they are, what they do, why they do it and how we all get along, I had found my voice. I shifted focus from being a full-time jazz drummer, music teacher and university professor to being a photographer.
Now I spend my days crafting images, working with inspiring people, trying to inspire in return, solving problems, communicating and finding common vision.
Putting something into the world that never existed before, expressing the simple beauty that is every person, the joy of a color and a line and the emotional power they communicate through shared culture and personal experience...these are the things that excite and drive me. This is my dream and I get to live it every day.
I have been privileged to work with these fine people:
HDMZ Healthcare and Science Marketing, Hennesy Design Group Inc., Huffington Post, Jazziz Magazine, University of Chicago, Seattle Genetics, True Good, Creative Modern Drummer Magazine, Interactions Magazine, University of Richmond, Sangamo BioSciences, Inc., Poppy Seed, City Arts Magazine, Seattle Times, University of Washington, Walgreens, Taylor Shellfish Farms, AAA Journey Magazine, Seattle Post Intelligencer, UW Campus Sustainability Fund, FINAO, Durand Tonearms, Columns Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, UW Chamber Dance Company, National Public Radio, Tolley Guitars, Seattle Magazine, The Stranger, University of Washington Department of Dance, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Sparkman Wines, Seattle Metropolitan Magazine, Seattle Weekly, University of Washington School of Music
AWARDS
2019 International Photo Awards Honorable Mention Professional Portraits for the image "Kelly Langslay"
2019 International Photo Awards Honorable Mention Professional Portraits for the image "Lisa Kwak"
2011 The Marketing Awards City Arts, Arts Fest issue, Best Print Feature