About the Artist

My work is informed by 19th and early 20th century photographic processes and the technologies that drove them. I describe the foundation of my practice as Research Art; informed and guided by the history of process and technology and expressed through the use of those same practices for research and the making of contemporary work. I approach my work as an amalgamation of photographer, research scientist, conceptual artist, and time traveler.

I am primarily a contemporary daguerreotypist and I use the process to make contemporary work and for use in conservation and curatorial research. My current projects focus on the practices and early achievements in daguerreotypy by Robert Cornelius and Samuel Morse, the origins of photomicrography and astrophotography through John William Draper’s daguerreotype photomicrographs and his daguerreotype astrophotography, and the origins of photogravure through Fizeau’s Direct Etch From Daguerreotype process. I also work with the comparatively obscure but equally relevant and historically significant competing paper direct positive process of Hippolyte Bayard.

I consult on various topics for the conservation of daguerreotypes and early photographic cameras, apparatus, and optics and specialize in collections-based research, specifically the handling and use of historical photographic artifacts in museum and institutional collections for practice-based conservation and curatorial research. My early background includes assistantships for photographers Stephen Berkman, Michael A. Smith, Donna Ferrato, and Arlene Gottfried.

My work is in the permanent collections of the Getty Museum, the Library of Congress, the U.S. Capitol Office of the Architect, and private collections.