The Mobile Upload...

In the past year or so I have been longing to reunite with some of my film cameras... not the beloved Mamiya RZ or even the Nikon F4... I've longed for the happy accidents and unexpected loveliness of my Toy Camera collection... The Holga, The Diana, my Graphlex Speed Graphic, the Yashica, the Voigtlander, Lubitel, Lomo or even the ...good old fashioned Pinhole!... These cameras are old friends to me. Friends I haven't put film in for years. Not since the emergence of my digital age. I am often asked what my preferred format is; film or digital. Professionally, there are pros and cons to both but digital makes the most sense. For personal projects however, hands down; film. Through the lens of the above mentioned collection my vision becomes inspired. I truly SEE differently. Textures. Patterns. Art.

I recently had the revelation; my iPhone is my new Toy Camera. There is very little control. It is not perfect. I always have it with me. This is where those happy accidents can occur. So I've decided to embrace this new vision.

I have a new friend.

A Skyline Changed Forever...

The towers were my compass. Anyone who was in New York City prior to their fall used those towers as a compass. I was fascinated by them. I loved photographing them. I was living in Manhattan on 9/11. I lived in the West Village at Perry and Hudson, a main avenue that only 20 blocks away ended right at the towers. The weeks, and months, that followed 9/11 can only be described as surreal. I had previously been considering moving back to my hometown in California, but surprisingly, after 9/11 the communities in Manhattan really pulled together. All of the sudden people connected in ways they had not done so previously. We were all in it together. The skyline, the city and the people were changed forever...

New Eyes in New York

discovery consists not
in seeking new landscapes
but in having new eyes
marcel proust




For 4 years I lived in New York City. A place filled with people all in a hurry to get somewhere, including myself. But I carried with me two of my favorite cameras, the Holga. One had color film. The other had black & white. The camera itself is referred to as a "toy camera" because it is made of plastic and even has a plastic lens. It commonly has light leaks and vignettes and has only two exposure settings. But I fell in love with it. I learned all the nuances. Mostly I love the ethereal quality it gives to the final images. Someone once commented that my toy camera images look like snapshots of a dream! That was such a huge compliment to me!

The other thing I loved about carrying these two cameras with me at all times was that I began to see things differently. In fact, I began to 'see'. All those things and places that we walk by in our busy daily lives bacame fascinating to me. And my world opened up, visually.... I had 'new eyes'...