Biography
Artist Statement / Biography
My goal is to create images that are distinctly photographic. In other words, an image that cannot be made in any other medium. It is my interest to put forward images to broaden the public’s view that photography is fine art, not only black and white, but color as well. Photographic art should be studied and evaluated for what it is and how it elicits an emotional response and interpretation from the viewer, as with all fine art.
Son of San Pedro photographer Jeanne Dobbs Schopp, I would occasionally assist her during wedding assignments while a student at Dana Jr. High and San Pedro High Schools. She taught me the basics of photography and especially composition. However, seeing the problems she endured with uncooperative clients distanced me from a profession in wedding photography!
My passion for photography fully developed while a student at the California Maritime Academy (CMA). In the first trimester of 1978, we departed on the annual training cruise. Sailing to Hawaii, New Caledonia, and Fiji, I shot a total of 5 rolls over the three months as that is all I brought with me. The experience created a passion for photography, travel, and exploration.
Joining the Photo-Media club at CMA, I was taught darkroom techniques. Soon, I was spending after class hours past midnight developing and printing black & white images of student life. On the following annual cruises, we visited ports in Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, Tonga, Samoa, New Zealand, and other harbors. Now, I was carrying and shooting 70 rolls per trip. Being on a ship at sea for three months, the students (midshipmen) tired of being my subject. This turn of events allowed me to develop a love for experimental and abstract photography.
Currently, my favorite time to photograph is after sunset. Using slow color film and long time exposures, it allows me to capture images that are specific to photography. The long exposures blur and sometimes even render the actual image invisible, only leaving on film the path of the lights. The contrast of the bright and varied colors of the subject in combination with the color shifting of the film set against the navy blue or black sky provide a brilliance and contrast that can only be created in photography.
For the past 3 years, I have returned to black and white photography, a medium I had not used extensively since 1981. Using long time exposures in many of these images, the various shades of gray emphasize the structure and its subtleties for the stationary structure, while giving flight to the portion in motion.
Education:
Advanced photography course (Instructed by Mark Comon).
2000 – Landscapes,
2001 –
Portraits,
2002 – The Creative Eye. California Maritime Academy,
1981. BS – Nautical Industrial Technology University of Southern California,
1990. MBA