Bio

I am a Landscape Architect living in Montana with a passion for black and white photography. Several years ago, I began studying the history of compositional influences in black and white photography in the fine art form we know today. I soon realized that the compositional principles that most influenced photography have their beginnings in the design principles used in architecture and garden design dating back thousands of years. The most commonly used techniques for many photographers come from a European tradition and is the source of most of what are often refered to as the rules of composition. These rules started with the ancient Greek discovery of the golden ratio over two thousand years ago and eventually led to the commonly used rule of thirds. The hallmark of the European tradition is that aesthetic quality can be mathematically and intellectually determined. The photographic compositional style that has had the most impact on fine art black and white photography, particularly American black and white fine art photography we see today is, I believe, from the Asian tradition. The Asian tradition of composition known as notan can be traced back to Zen Buddhist monks a thousand years ago and to Taoist monks a thousand years before that. Translated as light/dark harmony, notan can be used to reveal the essence of an image by finding its abstract compositional structure. Notan was the inspiration for the American Modernist art movement and was used by artist Georgia O'Keeffe and early fine art photographers Alfred Steiglitz, Paul Strand, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams and many others. Where the European tradition gives us rules about how to think about art, the Asian tradition helps the artist illustrate feeling. Although both compositional traditions inform my work, I feel that notan offers a much more robust path in identifying, visualizing and creating an interesting image. For me, if an image evokes a feeling or emotion not easily put into words, then mission accomplished.