I am a New Orleans based photographer. Growing up in Chicago, I got into photography as a teen in the 90s. I fell in love with the visual communication of telling a story through photography, and studied photojournalism at Ohio University. In 2005 I took a staff position at the Orange County Register, but within a few years decided to move back to Chicago to start a freelance career. 

    In this time I started a number of personal projects that experimented with my approach to photography. Urban Nature became a major theme of the work exploring our relationship with nature in an urban environment. I was also documenting music and art’s ability to build and strengthen communities. During this time I also met my wife who is from New Orleans when she evacuated to Chicago during Katrina. After many trips to visit New Orleans, we moved down in 2011.

    Over the years living in New Orleans I have focused on a number of topics, while continuing the Urban Nature and music work. Carnival and the Backstreet Culture have become sprawling projects that divide deep into the New Orleans community that cultivate the traditions we see in the streets today. Working closely with masking Indians, I created the 50/50 project in 2022. The goal of the project is to work with culture bearers to make beautiful portraits and capture unique moments that encapsulate their art and tradition. Profits from print sales of the commissioned work is split evenly between photographer and culture bearer. 

    In 2025 I started a new project called New Orleans Bouquet. Using backdrops to isolate elements of New Orleans historic iconography, I create bouquets around them with flowers and plants growing locally. The departure from photographing people is a thrilling visual exploration and creating the arrangements, with help from floral artist Rob Joy, has been exciting to wrap my mind around and expand on. Many additions to this series are in the works currently.

    My work has been seen in a number of group shows and many publications local to international including a number of books about New Orleans and Chicago. I have also self published many books, and produced an album of traditional music and oral history of the Monogram Hunters. Working with anthropologist Martha Radice, I created a public street exhibit of 70 photos called “Carnival from the Ground Up” in the French Quarter for the entirety of the 2024 Carnival season. After the exhibit came down the prints were gifted to the subjects.

    Today my goal is to tell a story of communities practicing cultural artistry to create discussion around joy and our connection to nature. The photography is a colorful array of imagery that contains humanity and nature within them.