fallen soldier_artiststatementThrough my photography I strive to create images that allow the viewer to experience what I felt at one particular place and time. Hopefully viewers consider my images to be beautiful but an image is a poor substitute for the actual visual, physical and spiritual connection that can be experienced in the natural world. When I make a photograph in the field my other senses take in the non-visual aspects of a scene and create an experience that is impossible to capture with a mere photograph. Like the shadows seen by the prisoners in Plato's cave, images from nature cannot even come close to representing the total essence of an object and the experience of being there. In fact, most people in the presence of a natural object probably don’t really experience its inherent natural beauty except in a superficial way. We are often either worrying about the past or in too much of a rush, trying to get somewhere we think we need to be, instead of living in the present.