Self-portrait of the subject, early in his career
Shadows and Reflections: A few biographical notes to any CV
Always imagining what to say, what should be said…
The signs.
The signs.
That it all began in the middle of the last century in The Bronx.
That the hospital where I was born no longer exists…perhaps burned down?
That just across from that forgotten hospital you’ll find the little cabin where Edgar Allen Poe wrote, he who so influenced Baudelaire. Was that a sign that I would leave one day for Europe and Paris?
Or was it my early childhood in the neighborhood below the Cloisters in northern Manhattan, growing up near the echoing stones and columns, the very ones that were taken – piece by piece – from the Pyrenees where I now live?
That the hospital where I was born no longer exists…perhaps burned down?
That just across from that forgotten hospital you’ll find the little cabin where Edgar Allen Poe wrote, he who so influenced Baudelaire. Was that a sign that I would leave one day for Europe and Paris?
Or was it my early childhood in the neighborhood below the Cloisters in northern Manhattan, growing up near the echoing stones and columns, the very ones that were taken – piece by piece – from the Pyrenees where I now live?
Getting a job at 15 on the local suburban newspaper.
Taking pictures, writing articles, working the darkroom, the process cameras and the old presses and, when old enough to drive, delivering the finished paper by truck throughout the suburbs where I grew up.
Taking pictures, writing articles, working the darkroom, the process cameras and the old presses and, when old enough to drive, delivering the finished paper by truck throughout the suburbs where I grew up.
Universities. In Massachusetts, Maryland, New Mexico and New York – beginning with film and European history, ending with graduate work in philosophy.
Traveling. Back and forth across the country.
Photographing non-stop.
Playing an old mandolin.
Paying my way. Occasionally with photography, occasionally with something else.
Odd jobs.
Construction.
Writing.
Teaching.
Photography again and always.
An occasional exhibit, an artist’s residency in Spain.
Traveling. Back and forth across the country.
Photographing non-stop.
Playing an old mandolin.
Paying my way. Occasionally with photography, occasionally with something else.
Odd jobs.
Construction.
Writing.
Teaching.
Photography again and always.
An occasional exhibit, an artist’s residency in Spain.
From my earliest memories to the present, you see, I seem to oscillate, moving to a questioning and wonder marked by the act of taking a picture, of writing and the occasional traditional folk song.
These are the things that inhabit me, and inhabit me still, like breathing.
These are the things that inhabit me, and inhabit me still, like breathing.
Throughout this existence, itinerant and vagabond, my life has been a constant and archival act in which, faced with one of my ephemeral preoccupations – and beyond my conscious thoughts – I stop – focus and take a picture – remember a phrase to sing, to write down and then…store them all carefully away.
Attraction and distraction, light and dark.
Another part of that constant dialogue, the way I pause and reflect in either the instant the shutter takes or in my mind’s eye.
And it is in these fleeting seconds, caught and strung together, that fragmentary lives are made somewhat whole.
Another part of that constant dialogue, the way I pause and reflect in either the instant the shutter takes or in my mind’s eye.
And it is in these fleeting seconds, caught and strung together, that fragmentary lives are made somewhat whole.
When I was 14, I told myself that all I wanted was to take pictures, play folk music and write.
Today, almost 60 years later, I continue to do just that, in the shadow of the world, perhaps – traveling when all around me is stationary and motionless when everyone else moves – writing between the seconds of an exposure…and taking pictures when empty of words, and filling words and breathe as the light fades…and returns, again and again.
Today, almost 60 years later, I continue to do just that, in the shadow of the world, perhaps – traveling when all around me is stationary and motionless when everyone else moves – writing between the seconds of an exposure…and taking pictures when empty of words, and filling words and breathe as the light fades…and returns, again and again.
...A few more notes
PHOTOGRAPHY
2018/2019 - Group exhibit "FAM", Galarie Agathe Gaillard, Paris, France
2008 - Speculations Past, Personal exhibit, Le Cabinet d’Amateur, Paris, France
2004 and 2002 - Dance photography at CND (Centre National de Dance, France) workshops published in the American professional dance review "Currents"
2001 - "Landscapes", Forum Amalienpark, Berlin. Group exhibit
2000 - Artist book with Tanja Zimmermann based on my poem cycle "Spanish Landscapes"
1999 - "Spanish Landscapes", Photography, Vordingborg, Denmark. Group Exhibit
1999- "Work in Progress", (with M. Schauwecker) Heinrich Heine House (University of Lüneburg) Lüneburg (Germany)
1986 and 1989 - Book covers for Intertext Press, Alaska and Sachem Press, NY, USA
1972-1975 - Public relations photography St. John's College, Santa Fe,NM, USA
1968-1972 - Staff photographer and writer, The Rockland News Leader / Independent, New York suburban weekly
Private collections in the USA, Switzerland, Germany and France.
CONFERENCES, EVENTS, INTERESTS AND AWARDS
1998 - Fundación Valparaiso, Mojácar, Almeria, Spain, Residency in poetry and photography.
1994 - Occasional commentaries for radio WMMT, Whitesburg, KY, USA
1992 - Journalist for 5-part UNESCO film series on Independent Video Communications conference held in France.
1991 - Etats Généraux du Documentaire, Lussas, France. Speaker on "Access to Media in the United States"
1971-1975 - Involved in non-musical organization Jean and Lee Schilling’s Folk Fesitval of the Smokies in Cosby, TN, USA
TEACHING & OTHER SUCH ACTIVITIES
1989 – present- Medical communications and education
1990 – 1991 - Professor, Philosophy of Communications at the Institut de Communication Visuelle, Paris
1979 – 1983 - Consultant to the Laucks Foundation, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
1977 – 1978 - Instructor in Philosophy and Photography, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA
EDUCATION
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA (Master of Science Program in Philosophy)
St. John's College, Santa Fe, NM and Annapolis, MD, USA (BA in Classical Liberal Arts/Philosophy)
The School of Public Communications of Boston University, Boston, MA, USA (Studies in film and communications)