The pictures I make are intended to be gentle pictures though often enough the ugliness in life stands in the way and demands to be heard.  So to accomplish some truth everything in my pictures is not beautiful in the traditional sense. I am primarily interested in documenting ordinary people and ordinary circumstances in settings that express the arcane tidbits that their faces give away. Sometimes they are already in the proper setting  for full disclosure but more often than not I have to create the setting for them with digital tools in my studio.  More and more this seems to be the case. 

I have been influenced by a number filmmakers and photographers whose work I admire though I don't claim to copy or follow their lines of thinking or practice. Among the filmmakers there is John Cassavettes, Elaine May and also Ken Jacobs who was one of my teachers; among the photographers there is Roy DeCarava, Mary Ellen Mark, Diane Arbus and Gordon Parks. Ultimately Carrie Mae Weems, Lorna Simpson and David Hammons are the contemporary artists I admire the most.

In an earlier incarnation I made films and TV programs for a number of Public Television and Cable TV operations including WETA TV, WNET TV, The Children's Television Workshop and Nikelodeon.