Reverse color-altered photography, a long and technical title, describes what I do in my art; push beyond the boundaries of the traditional “precious” negative. I began this experimental process as a reaction against my background as a pure, straight black & white photojournalist. The process begins by photographing figures and other subject matter with different color filters and positive and negative films. I prefer this direct tactile process, including painting, drawing, and scratching right on the film emulsion. Often, I create a negative collage, using up to twelve negatives for one piece. Other images are created by “sandwiching” two negatives together to make one.

Using this technique, I photograph subjects that are universally recognized that the public can relate to. I seek to show these things in unexpected way, with unexpected colors, scale, surreal relationships, in a dream-like intensity. The female nude series epitomizes the reverse color-altered process, evoking complex feelings of intimacy, comfort, security, caring, meditation, to worry, quietness, and thoughtfulness. Many people do not believe my prints are photography, assuming many of them are paintings. By combining my techniques with these ubiquitous images, I try to expand people’s ideas of what photography can become.