Born in 1956 in New York City, I was surrounded by an intense and violent urban environment. Making art was my inner world, my refuge. I always viewed the world around me with a photographic eye, even before I owned a camera. As a boy I would make mental "photographs" by blinking. This was how I recorded what I saw. I first worked with a photographer when I was 13, accompanying my mentor to hospitals throughout New York as he photographed special medical cases. Later, at 18, I had the great fortune to study “Psychological Portraiture” with renowned portrait photographer Philippe Halsman. In 1995, after several careers, I decided to devote myself to photography full time. Making photographs is one of the ways I participate in life. I explore my own humanity and place in this world by surveying the mysterious internal beauty, struggle, humor and irony, strength and vulnerability of others and our environment.