Artist Statement:

In January 2008, a close friend and I embarked on an adventure to India.  Over the past few years, my desire to see this country grew.  India is a religiously pluralistic, multilingual, and multiethnic society with much to offer. It’s also the seventh largest country in the world, and with only two weeks to spare, we had to limit what we would see.  We decided to start in Mumbai (Bombay) and work our way to the southern most tip, Kanyakumari, where the Bay of Bengal, The Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea all converge.  Along the way we stopped in Goa, to see its beautiful beaches on the Arabian Sea, as well as Kerala, which is criss-crossed by a network of interconnected brackish canals, lakes, estuaries, and rivers known as the Kerala Backwaters.

I aspired to bring home a strong body of images from this trip, but I tried to keep my expectations and preconceived notions of what I would see and how I would see it to a minimum.  I wanted to remain open and spontaneous, but at the same to time, be informed enough to appreciate what I was witnessing.  I packed my pro digital SLR and my Diana camera (a plastic medium format camera made in the 1960’s). I photographed simultaneously with both for the two weeks.

Although the image content varies, I find a lot of my images (and my choices) involve water.  Water is commonly associated with the qualities of emotion, intuition and imagination.  Water is an integral part of many spiritual beliefs and practices.  As we explore spirituality and its relationship to our physical existence, water seems to be important, if only as a symbol.