Artist Statement

Shot over a period of more than a decade, the stereo photographs in "From the Bottom of the Ravine to the Top of the World" emerge from my travels.  Whether crossing a continent, an ocean, or just walking across the East River to go to work, I try to stay alert to my surroundings.  This group of images starts in a western American landscape where we see fantastic structures that have been built to separate wires from ground as they transmit hydroelectric power generated at the Hoover Dam. It ends in the middle of New York City on the roof of the northern tower of the World Trade Center.  While this platform, an acre in size and a quarter mile in the sky seems isolated, it was in fact tied into the rest of the city via a field of antennae and a landing pad for helicopters.  In the intervening images, the surroundings are varied, but the elements that we use to connect our society are always in evidence. 

Artist Bio

Born in Texas, I received a degree in mathematics and fine arts from Rice University and continued my work in art at California Institute of the Arts.  After living in Dallas and Los Angeles, I moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1979.  I have worked with photography since 1970, doing my first large scale coarse-grained halftone work in 1971, my first multi-frame panoramic work in 1976, my first stereo photographs in 1983, and my first website in 1996.  I continue to work in all of these modes to this day.  My work is in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Getty; and the Smithsonian Institution.