About Don
I feel like I've been taking pictures of people nearly all my life. Whether it's a street or editorial portrait, the images are rarely formal and create a unique opportunity to really see another person up close. It's that intimacy, even with people I've never spoken to that makes portraiture uniquely different from other forms of photography. I like to work in series that are focused around a location or a particular attribute.
One of the first was my Known:Unknown series… more
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21 Days - NYC
I worked in NYC for 8 years in the late 90's. It was loud, dirty and a bit dangerous if you weren't familiar with it's rhythms and the places to avoid. It was a city of contrasts. Of winners and losers. Those that were "them" and those that were "us". I didn't know it at the time, but I was front row center at a time of transition for the city, led by Rudolph Guiliani and epitomized by dramatic changes like the Disneyfication of Times Square. Seemingly overnight the rough edges of the city were rounded off, and places no New Yorker ever went became packed with tourists, chain stores and art galleries.
I returned 21 years later to record the people I found there today. Native New Yorkers and tourists alike. Not surprisingly, like much of America, the contrasts were even more apparent than they were before. It seemed like every measurable attribute had been pushed to a new extreme. This is 21 Days in NYC through my eyes.
I returned 21 years later to record the people I found there today. Native New Yorkers and tourists alike. Not surprisingly, like much of America, the contrasts were even more apparent than they were before. It seemed like every measurable attribute had been pushed to a new extreme. This is 21 Days in NYC through my eyes.
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Who Watches the Watchers?
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Clearly in Control.
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Humans are a herd species. But do not despair. Soon you will have both the strength of youth and the first flower of wisdom.Humans are a herd species. But do not despair. Soon you will have both the strength of youth and the first flower of wisdom.
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With the precision of a Broadway cast, this group does show after carefully scripted show.With the precision of a Broadway cast, this group does show after carefully scripted show.
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Committed to the Cause.
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Confronting a false sense of permanence.
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Note.
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I know exactly what happened. I was there.
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The losses in life are written clearly on the eyes. In grayish ink that never fully dries.
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He chose that moment to reveal something he had kept secret all these years.
4 Days: LA
This was a small side project where I dropped into LA and shot on the street for 4 Days. The light in LA is sharp and clear and a tremendous contrast to light in NYC.
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The ink is laid upon the scars that we cannot see.
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The bird sleeps through it all.
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The palm trees sway.
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It was not about pride. It was about not letting the people who love him down.
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She knew she was in the right.
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The end of the Trail.
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You can almost see the ocean from here.
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At this point she had taken all he had to offer.
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It was just completely unexpected.
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A triple threat. Singer, Rapper, Skater.
Known:Unknown
A collection of portraits of people who I knew well or had only just met.
Each situation brought a different challenge as I sought to either connect with someone I'd only just met, or create as honest a portrait as I could of a friend or collegue.
The 16x20" black and white prints are hand-colored with oils.
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Paul and JamesStuck in Bumper to Bumper Traffic, I pulled over and met Paul (L) and James (R) working on the road.
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Peter and CherylI knew Peter in the course of my work at the time. His girlfriend Cheryl was not pleased that I was there.
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AlbertAlbert is my Grandfather. He is seated in his kitchen, which like the rest of the house remained unchanged since the passing of his wife in the early 1960s.
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SaraSara is an accomplished artist who I've known for many years.
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MarthaMartha is an art historian with the Corcoran.
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LindaLinda is a veterinarian and a research scientist with the government.
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HopeHope was a client of a company I worked for. She is now a novelist.
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Charles, Sally, Charles Jr.I met this family working at a State Fair
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ChrisChris is a accomplished photographer and has been a friend since I was a child.
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MikeMike accompanied me to the edge of a runway. I was there on assignment to photograph the jets as they passed closely overhead.
Monterey
I had to travel to Monterey, the weekend when my Grandfather passed away.
When a person passes it seems inevitable that you reflect on the things that you did with them and the things that you didn't.
I realized that we had never gone to the beach together.
I had brought some equipment with me on assignment and so when I heard that he was gone, I walked the beach with a Polaroid camera and took photographs of the vacation that we never had. Using special film which produces both a negative to keep and a print to give away, I presented each of my compatriots with the original print.
When a person passes it seems inevitable that you reflect on the things that you did with them and the things that you didn't.
I realized that we had never gone to the beach together.
I had brought some equipment with me on assignment and so when I heard that he was gone, I walked the beach with a Polaroid camera and took photographs of the vacation that we never had. Using special film which produces both a negative to keep and a print to give away, I presented each of my compatriots with the original print.
Keansburg, NJ
Stand on nearly any beach on the New Jersey Coast and throw a stone. You will likely hit a boardwalk with an amusement park.
Keansburg is one such place. At just the right level of disrepair and mired in deferred maintenance, it was still a place of joy for the kids who were too young to notice.
Keansburg is one such place. At just the right level of disrepair and mired in deferred maintenance, it was still a place of joy for the kids who were too young to notice.
Travels
I've been lucky in that I have been able to travel around the US and abroad.
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RickRick is a Farrier who takes care of horses at Fairs up and down the Eastern Seaboard.
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Buster (Dog)I was making a picture of Haystack Rock in Oregon. Buster wanted to be part of it.
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DevonDevon was playing his heart out on a cold San Francisco day.
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Happy Birthday
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Grandmother, SonColorado outside of Denver.
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Honor FlightWWII Memorial
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EyesA cow and her kid.
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FragileShelley in the Subway with a Snow Globe.
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FlagPatterson Park