I graduated from SCAD in the summer of 2001.
Five fellow students and I moved up here to New York and found an apartment all shacked
up together in a really tiny place.
I moved up here right around September 11th, so it was a very difficult time to find a
job.
I ended up very quickly landing in a position as a full-time assistant for a portrait photographer
named Timothy Greenfield Sanders.
Working as an assistant for a well-known photographer definitely prepared me specifically
from a business standpoint.
Just figuring out and seeing how the whole industry works, if you pay attention as an
assistant you learn what to do and what not to do as a photographer.
My father was an airline pilot and obviously you have to be the very meticulous type of
person.
My mother was an artist and an art teacher, collectively both of them definitely influenced
my aesthetic.
It was very meticulous, very clean and honest.
Whether I'm working on a job for Nike or whether I'm doing a portrait for Time Magazine,
there's a sincerity to the work that I do.
I think that that's the key thing that I bring to my clients and I think that that's what
gets me to work.
There's really nothing quite like seeing the final product, whether it's a commercial
shoot and you see an ad or whether it's an annual report and you see the whole book just
go to the newsstand and see that you have, oh yeah I've got something in there, I've
got something in there, I've got something in there.
It's just kind of fun in a very bare bones way to open up a magazine and see something
that you did in there, it never gets old.
The equipment that I use is a mix of old and new technology, I still really gravitate towards
shooting film and using a large 4x5 camera whenever possible.
I really love the slow methodical process of shooting film.
My main goal in my career is exploration, whether it's exploring an artist's studio
or a lab of a really well known scientist, whether I'm working on a personal project
driving literally aimlessly, it's just this concept of exploration and I think that that's
my main inspiration in life.
The photography department at SCAD was everything I needed it to be, the computers, the cameras,
it was just an amazing opportunity to try everything out, to have all of this equipment
at your disposal.
SCAD prepared me for life in the real world as a photographer.
I've been told many times by clients that my way of working with them is different than
their experience with other people and I think it's a communication thing, it's a respect
thing, it's the fact that I actually really want to work for them.
Getting work in this city is an extreme challenge and I think that if you play your cards right
and you're kind and you're talented and you are determined and you don't let anybody deter
you from what it is that you want to do, then you'll be okay.
