I am a photographer and educator who lives in Murphysboro, Illinois, with my wife Bridget Ryan and our daughter Evelyn. Bridget is my chief digital imaging advisor and helped create this website. As you can see from the timeline I have been both a student and faculty member at SIU over the course of many years. My time on faculty spanned August, 1990 to August, 2021. I have traveled and photographed throughout the United States. In addition, I have photographed in Canada, Mexico, Thailand, France, Holland, Germany, Czech Republic and in many parts of the United Kingdom. Scotland has been my home for one month each year since 2000, except for the pandemic interruptions of 2020 and 2021. I have shown my work in the USA and abroad. I have co-authored two books, A River Through Illinois (2008) and Illinois Trails and Traces: Portraits and Stories Along the State’s Historic Routes (2022) with writer Gary Marx. I also co-authored Artificial Lighting for Photography (2009) with Joy McKenzie. A second edition of Artificial Lighting for Photography, with co-authors Joy and Josh Sanseri, is presently at the printers (as of January, 2024). The creation of the books, with my good friends and colleagues, have been the highlights of my endeavors in my chosen discipline. My emeritus years have been (so far) spent finishing the last two books, making new photographs and watching Evelyn grow.

TECHNICAL NOTES

Professors David Gilmore and Charles Swedlund taught me to appreciate the possibilities and curiosities to be found in different aspects of photography. In addition to those continuing influences, my students continue to enlighten me with new ways to create photographs. 

The featured photographs were created with a range of equipment and materials. The technical details are sometimes of interest to fellow photographers and students.

Cameras: Hasselblad ArcBody with a 35mm lens, Hasselblad SWC/M, Hasselblad Xpan with 30mm and 45mm lenses and a Hasselblad EL/X with a number of lenses. Also used was a Linhof 617s III with 72mm and 180mm lenses and a Deardorff V8 with a range of optics from 120mm to 450mm. Dave Gilmore shared his Roundshot 220VR with me until I could obtain my own. Those cameras created the 380° and 360° images, with 35mm and 28mm Nikkor PC lenses, respectively. The digital images were created with either a Canon 5D Mark III or a Canon 5DS R and a 17mm TS lens. A wide range of Kodak, Fuji and Ilford films were used. The black and white film was processed in Rodinal, D-76V, BW-44, FX-37 and PMK in my darkroom and borrowed darkrooms from Arbroath, Scotland to Bangkok, Thailand.

CHRONOLOGY

1958 • Born in Peoria, Illinois

1973 • First experience with single-lens reflex camera, Philmont Boy Scout Ranch, New Mexico

1976-1980 • Undergraduate, Department of Cinema and Photography, Southern Illinois University (SIU), Photography BA, Carbondale, Illinois, May, 1980

1979-80, 1985-88 • Photo Lab Supervisor, News and Information Service, Philmont, Cimarron, New Mexico

1980 • Photographer, The Observer, Peoria

1981-83 • Graduate School, School of Art and Design, SIU, Printmaking MFA, May, 1983

1984 • Location Photo, free-lance photographer, with John Newman, Reno, Nevada

1985 • Photography Instructor, Art Department, Illinois Central College, East Peoria, Illinois, hired by Shelby Lee Adams

1986-87 • Winter Program Resident, Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, Alberta

1987 • Photography, Art and Graphic Arts Instructor, Lincoln College, Dwight Correctional Center, Dwight, Illinois

1988-89 • Free-lance photography, photographer’s assistant and retail clerk at Camera and Darkroom, Santa Fe, New Mexico

1989-90 • Assistant Professor in Photography and Video Production, School of Art and Design, Wichita State University, Kansas

1990-1997 • Assistant Professor in Photography, Department of Cinema and Photography, SIU

1998-2009 • Associate Professor in Photography, Department of Cinema and Photography, SIU; Department Chair, 1997-2000

2000 •Join Michael Onken, co-creator and cordinator of the SIU Study Abroad program “Art and Culture in the Scottish Landscape”, to visit Scotland for the first time.

2008 •A River Through Illinois (Co-author Gary Marx)

2009 •Artificial Lighting for Photography (1st edition, co-author Joy McKenzie)

2010-2021• Professor, Department of Cinema and Photography & School of Art and Design, SIU

2021-present • Professor Emeritus, SIU & photographer

2022 •Illinois Trails and Traces: Portraits and Stories Along the State’s Historic Routes (Co-author Gary Marx)

2023 •Artificial Lighting for Photography (2nd edition, co-authors Joy McKenzie and Josh Sanseri))