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

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.

  • Paul and James
    Paul and James
    Stuck in Bumper to Bumper Traffic, I pulled over and met Paul (L) and James (R) working on the road.
  • Peter and Cheryl
    Peter and Cheryl
    I knew Peter in the course of my work at the time. His girlfriend Cheryl was not pleased that I was there.
  • Albert
    Albert
    Albert 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.
  • Sara
    Sara
    Sara is an accomplished artist who I've known for many years.
  • Martha
    Martha
    Martha is an art historian with the Corcoran.
  • Linda
    Linda
    Linda is a veterinarian and a research scientist with the government.
  • Hope
    Hope
    Hope was a client of a company I worked for. She is now a novelist.
  • Charles, Sally, Charles Jr.
    Charles, Sally, Charles Jr.
    I met this family working at a State Fair
  • Chris
    Chris
    Chris is a accomplished photographer and has been a friend since I was a child.
  • Mike
    Mike
    Mike 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.

Hampden

This series was a "Day in the Life" in Hampden, Md. 

  • Stoop
    Stoop
    Kids on the stoop
  • Mother, Daughter
    Mother, Daughter
  • Tootsie Rolls and cigarettes
    Tootsie Rolls and cigarettes
  • Care
    Care
    I spent a couple of hours with this Father and his family.
  • Alone
    Alone

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.
  • Split
    Split
  • Two
    Two
  • Watching
    Watching
  • Waiting
    Waiting
  • Pointing
    Pointing
  • Coaster
    Coaster
  • Slide
    Slide
  • Ride
    Ride