The first photo I remember taking was in a small neighborhood grocery store in Uppsala, Sweden, close to my mom's house. I might have been 10. Embarrassed, I got rid of this photo sometime in my 20s—something I regret today. I created a still-life: three bottles of brightly colored sodas on a bushel of potatoes. Click. How awesome.

After I moved to France in 1996, I was working as a freelance writer. I had a lot of trouble finding photographers I could work with, so I started taking my own photos using a small Ricoh GR1. Most of my photos were awful. I had no idea what I was doing, but sometimes I got lucky. The freelance money was good enough that I could waste a few rolls of film and finally learn something.

In my own mind, I became a photographer in New Orleans, after moving here in 2002. Digital photography makes an incredible amount of trial and error affordable, and this city might be short on money and well-paying jobs, but never short on subjects. Although I put together a traveling exhibit documenting home cooks in different New Orleans neighborhoods in 2004-2005, called You Are Where You Eat: Stories and Recipes from the Crescent City (funded by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and the Louisiana Division of the Arts), it was not until Hurricane Katrina that I developed a relationship with my own work and began making decisions beyond just doing what I knew I could.

As the Art Director at OffBeat magazine, I've photographed 82 covers to date. In the last six years, thanks to my partner Golden G. Richard, III, I've had a lot of fun photographing live music in general and heavy metal musicians in particular. It's hard to beat the energy. We publish most of our recent live music coverage on High ISO Music, where we also show our fine art portfolio ("favorites") with limited edition prints of our best work. We print everything ourselves by hand, one by one, using the best pigment inks we've been able to find.

Exhibiting artist at the 2015 Bywater Biennial as well as the 2017 Bywater Biennial II

Exhibiting artist at the 2016 group show "La Femme" at the New Orleans Art Center

"Blood, Sweat, and Hair" Fine Art Music Photography show at the Jazz & Heritage Gallery, November—December 2015, including 29 framed pieces

"Blood, Sweat, and Hair" Fine Art Music Photography show at Treo Gallery, April—May 2015, including 28 framed pieces

Exhibiting artist at the 2012 and 2013 Voodoo Music Experience

Exhibiting artist at the "i" photography show at The Darkroom: New Orleans Center for the Photographic Arts, January—April, 2007

 

You'll find more of my music photography on High ISO Music, a photo documentary and fine art website that I share with my partner, Golden G. Richard, III.