I’ve not been a photographer all of my (working) life, nor have I been an American all of my life. I was born just outside of Amsterdam and came to the US when I was seventeen. I received my undergraduate degree from Michigan, went into the business world for about 14 years and grew increasingly unhappy with what I was doing. In the mid 1970 I started to work on my Masters’ degree in photography and when I finished I also changed professions. Along the way I studied with Ansel Adams, Brett Weston, Morley Baer and Al Weber. In 1979 I became a full time photographer and in 1980 I added my other job of professor of photography when I started teaching at a prominent art school in Chicago. I absolutely love doing both.

As I have gotten older I have become pickier about the kinds of work I will do. So, if you have read this far you are lucky because we are coming to the most important part.

 I will work with ModelBrigade models who want to have photographs of themselves in the following categories:

            Burlesque or mild fetish. From my standpoint this is interesting work because the lighting for it is quite difficult and requires a lot of attention to details.

            Lingerie. Again, lighting is the difficult part, but it is a totally different kind of light and environment.

            Nudes. It’s easy to do a naked picture, it is difficult to do a nude. The lighting, the pose, the environment and most importantly, the communication with the model(s).

Quickly, I ask for a non-commercial model release from every one I work with. That allows me to use the pictures for exactly what it says – non commercial uses. If I get a request for a commercial use of a photograph, then the model and I will have a totally separate negotiation. In return, the model gets a non-commercial copyright release letter. Same deal and that’s only fair.

And now, the dark underbelly of the internet model business – money and TFCD or however you spell “trading for”.  Yes, I am willing to trade and yes, I am willing to talk about money (particularly with gas prices what they are) but we will only trade some burlesque or lingerie or fetish work for nudes. Some of the models I have worked with prefer to get signed prints since I am a superb printer as well in either the darkroom or digitally. Either way, except for gas/tolls, our work together will only be a trade.

Where do I work? Some of the time I use the studio space at the college where I teach, for some projects I  use a very large Deardorff camera which is located in my house and for other projects I go to our beach house about an hour outside of the city. References? Ask me. Questions? Write.