In 1968, when I was 13, an eccentric neighbor gave me a broken Leica IIIc. With that camera, and my parents’ Life and National Geographic magazines, I taught myself the craft of photography. My youthful vision was shaped by the iconic images of that era.
Although I chose another humanistic endeavor as a career, I remained an avid photographer. Despite the demands of surgical training, and later practice, my photography garnered recognition by photographers such as Eliot Porter, Art Wolfe and Sam Abell. In 2001, I won Best of Show in the Northwest Exhibition of Environmental Photography. Later that year I was moved by the events of 9/11 to join a U.S. Army Reserve Forward Surgical Team.
I deployed to Iraq during the 2003 invasion, where I saw a unique opportunity to photograph a large-scale conventional war from the intimate environment of a far-forward combat surgical tent. The mission also took me and my camera into Iraqi farm homes, city apartments, palaces and the terrorist camp of the Peoples Mujahedin of Iran. Subsequently, I published several articles and a book, Aid and Comfort to the Enemy.
Now retired from surgery, I have embarked with full force on my other youthful career choice, documentary photography. I am a freelance photographer for the Idaho Statesman. My first photo essay won First Place in the Idaho Press Club Best of 2019 Awards. I also have published photo essays in The Washington Post, LensWork Magazine and On Landscape Magazine, among others. The editors of National Geographic have selected a number of my photographs for publication on their website. I have several other publications and awards, including gold and silver medals in the 2020 Prix de la Photographie de Paris. A full curriculum vitae can be found here.
I plan in my second career to emulate the great photojournalists who worked into their 90’s.