Searching for the Glow

Black & White Digital Capture

Searching for the Glow is a title found while shooting in Crete one summer — and with it came the realization that it names one of the essences of thirty years of work: searching out high-toned, light surfaces that bring the actual atmosphere of a particular place and time into the photographic image. There is a sort of magic in these images, not so different from the magic of watching an image first appear on the paper in the developer.

Work in progress
Prices range from $300 to $3,000 · inquire

Bulli Glow · Fairfax, CA

Dog Shadow · Cayucos, CA

White Bench · San Joaquin Delta, CA

Bee Hives · Bodega Bay

Mendocino View · Mendocino, CA

Chevy · Santa Clara

North Beach Bike · San Francisco

PTQ · San Francisco

Beach Portrait · Sonoma Coast

Crack in Everything · Sausalito

Drum Reflection · San Francisco

Silver Horns · San Francisco

Bill on Flugelhorn · San Francisco

Dancing in Light · San Anselmo

Spring Boats · Silver Lake, Eastern Sierras

Cracked Windows · Angel Island

Rowers · Marin, CA

Chicken Pt Stairs · San Rafael, CA

Dark Ladders · Oakland, CA

Embarcadero Light · San Francisco

About This Portfolio

While bright objects and hot reflections can be photographed with any camera, older, less-coated lenses increase the effect — particularly simpler glass with fewer elements and more air-spacing. A certain glow appears in the highlights that can be nurtured by both chemical and digital means.

In recent years, having moved from the darkroom to the digital realm, the photographer has explored scores of vintage lenses — first to emulate silver prints, and now forging a path of their own. The nearly perfect Hasselblad lenses used in Colonial Noir served twenty years of darkroom printing at the highest level; today he looks instead for the perceived “flaws” in lenses that push the photographic vision further. Only a handful of these images have been exhibited, and while a number were pulled from other projects, the essence that connects them informs both his current shooting and the way these images are processed and printed.

All images are digital capture made with Sony mirrorless cameras using fixed legacy lenses from 1952–2005, several custom adapted for this purpose. All prints are archival pigment on rag papers.

All images are available for purchase · prices range from $300 to $3,000 depending on size and edition · inquire or call 415-509-5388