Photography

“Art only exists because of technology. What’s the first art in human history? Cave drawings. What’s the technology? Fire. They couldn’t do that without fire and the burnt stick. There is no art without technology. Art and technology are symbiotic. But the technology gives you certain limitations … Why didn’t Goethe make movies? He was a poet, a dramatist, ran a theater company, knew about acting—he should have been the first filmmaker. Why wasn’t he? Because the technology didn’t exist. Technology is not just a means, it is part of art.” Francis Ford Coppola

I came to teaching by way of photography, after being a commercial photographer and lab operator for 20 years. Indeed, I became a teacher by accident. Working in my photo lab before I had any interest in teaching, I was asked to fill in for a teacher at a local community college. Later, while working on my Master's degree, I taught myself Photoshop because I needed to create ultra-large panoramas for my one-man-show show. The art department chair learned of my experimentation and asked me to teach a class in Photoshop that lasted more than three years.