American Architects 1986-1987
At the very beginning of my career, I was fortunate to be able to study with one of the greatest portrait photographers of the 20th century, Arnold Newman. He is generally considered to be the pioneer of what became known as the "environmental portrait". For Mr Newman, to just photograph a face was not sufficient to communicate the essence of who that person was. He used the environment surrounding his subject to additionally inform the viewer as well. This resonated with me in a way that influenced my entire 40+ years of photography. There hasn't been a photograph taken, whether a portrait, or practically anything else, where his theories and thinking haven't been at the back of my mind.
That being said, during 1986 and 1987, I documented a unique group of American artist. Architects call on recurring motifs; lines, shapes, light, texture, to both interpret space and to redesign it. These photographs incorporate the same simple, graphic elements in an effort to symbolize how these artists think about architecture and to reveal the inherent nature of their work. Architecture has always provided the most interesting settings for the portraits I shoot. It seemed only natural that someday I would combine these two interests.