Teaching

I never planned on becoming a teacher, but upon reflection, in many ways I have been teaching photography my whole life. My public high school did not have a photography class, but it did have a darkroom, and I taught myself how to use the equipment and took a community college photography course. I was then accepted to the University of Iowa, which had a good art school, and quickly declared a photography emphasis and properly fell in love with the medium. After receiving my BFA with Honors, I was accepted into the MFA photo program at the California Institute of the Arts. Realizing I was unable to afford the tuition, I instead apprenticed a handful of professional photographers, and after moving to Manhattan in 1994, I started my own business, primarily shooting still life for advertising agencies and magazines. Along the way, I taught photography to kids at an arts summer camp in New Jersey, a workshop at the International Center for Photography, and a studio photography class at FIT, and now as the Photography Teacher at Newark Academy. I have been the mentor for a dozen or so young photography assistants who have since become professionals in their own right.