3 Questions

How do you balance the two aspects of your photography, the photojournalist and the artist sides?
Well, the two are not related at all. The photojournalism has been what my professional life has been—my professional life. But, photojournalism most of the time can be taxing mentally and emotionally. Along with good things, you also get to see some pretty horrible things. I think art photography for me is kind of like a way to use photography in a way that's completely different. I get to break all the rules and do things that I wouldn't necessarily get to do for a newspaper. As a photographer, I like to shoot just about everything I can think of, and that includes this light painting technique.

How did you first become aware of the method?
The technique has been around for a long time. Pablo Picasso has a photographic body of work using the light painting technique. A Japanese photographer friend showed it to him. He had attached lights to a figure skater's skates and had photographed them. You would have these very graceful poses and then a streak of light that would come from the skate. The sparkler, to me, seemed like the nicest light source to use, because it can be kind of unpredictable, it has a very nice golden glow to it and the shapes look more organic.

How did you go about perfecting the technique?
It took some trying, for sure. When I first started, it wasn't easy, because you're trying to draw three-dimensional objects in three-dimensional spaces without seeing what you're doing, and sometimes you better finish right where you started or otherwise things don't necessarily match up. It's trial-and-error, for sure. Sometimes you get it perfect the first time out, but that doesn't happen usually [laughs].

Santa Fe Reporter