About Don
Baltimore County
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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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.