I'm an American photography educator with a particular passion for teaching both the history of photography as well as practical photography. My classes are always aimed at general audiences. I love explaining photography techniques so that the average photography enthusiast can understand them and then apply the ideas in order to get more enjoyment from their own photography.
I've lectured on the history of photography in a university setting, as well as offering talks in public forums. One of my favorite recent experiences was giving a special invited series of lectures on the history of 20th Century American woman photographers. The success of those lectures, as well as the requests from audiences eager to learn more, inspired my current work on a proposed book about women photographers. At the moment I'm on research trip around North America, visiting photo archives and small museums with the goal of discovering more stories about early women photographers.
Before turning to photography full-time, I had a wide range of jobs and careers. At various times in my life, I've worked as a pianist, musical director and freelance journalist. For a time I worked as an ESL teacher in Japan; after earning a Ph.D. in Linguistics I also worked as a visiting Linguistics professor at the University of Iowa.
But for almost 20 years I was a software designer and developer, specializing in creating easy-to-use and accessible interfaces for award-winning desktop, web and mobile applications. I worked in the high-tech industry, earning awards and patents for my designs.
Before moving to high-tech, I worked for years creating educational software, including the award-winning Art and Life in Africa project. As the Associate Director of that project, I designed and developed the multimedia CD-ROM softare, as well as designing and implementing the original Art and Life in Africa website. At one time I also worked as a consultant designing and maintaining museum and art collection databases.
It was only after moving full-time to Europe a few years ago (Italy first, and then Germany) that I was able to take a break from the high-tech world and turn back to photography full-time. As a photographer, my work has been collected and exhibited internationally.
For the past few years, though, I've been focussed primarily on my work as a photography educator. My current research centers on the women who started their photography careers between 1840-1930. Their achievements are extraordinarily, but their inspirational stories are at risk of being lost to all but a few specialists in the field. I’m looking forward to celebrating them via my current project, Photographs, Pistols, and Parasols.
Click here to see a short version of my resume.