Outliers and Outsiders – Images of Creativity

A Curated Collection

    I grew up reading biographies of the people who shaped our country and our world and our society.

Until I read about them, they were unknown to me, but after I read about them, many were still unknown to others around me and the world.  

  Some of these people only accomplished one great thing. But many of them, accomplished much, repeatedly, often and for a very long time.

    Then, as I ventured into the world, I met, and continued to meet, people who built on a dream, worked on something they believed in for days, months, years, decades, and were often still unknown.

   What struck me, was that many of these people were unknown to the people right next to them. I only knew, because I would watch them, saw what they were doing, marveled at their work, or saw how they worked, heard about them through the grapevines, and sometimes, sought them out. 

      Sometimes, they were unknown when I met them – but I found their passion and intensity and persistence intriguing. And always, I would talk and shoot. These are some of those images. 

        I started printing gelatin silver black and white prints from self-developed negatives soon after I shooting. I started shooting the city of Chicago, as I also began dabbling with fashion. In Europe, I began looking to do profiles of artists and people I knew as I found that a larger public might not know their work or understaod them as well as I did in my sought out conversations with them. 

     I built darkrooms in New York and in my ability to print in marathon sessions of 16 to 20 hours with multiple changes of chemicals, I began exploring sepia and selenium toning, which was a process originally used to stabilize the gelatin silver on papers. The toning and developing was not uniform but was manipulated by hand in the intensity of chemistry, time, agitation and heat. Often there were indications of the inconsistencies in the lack of uniformity in the handcrafted prints. 

     In some of these prints, you can see the manipulation during the process. 

    As we moved to digital printing in the early 2000s, many of these prints were scanned, and then put up digitally. In reproducing from scanned prints, some of the hand manipulations are retained which can be seen in the reproductions which are now made available through modern archival processes, to preserve the heart and soul of the people I’ve photographed.  

     I encourage actors, dancers, musicians, performers, artists in every field to create and to build on a small hill of failure and success. Take risks. Take chances. Be brave. Shrug off both rejection and skepticism. But be smart enough to learn to get better despite failures.

      Our world does not recognize people until AFTER they had “made it” but the process of building and creating is inexorable.

   These photos are available as digital prints to continue the process of inspiring another generation, and encouraging us to look, see and recognize the work of people we pass, we see, we almost forget – but not quite. 

For ordering and pricing: