I started taking pictures in the early 1970s. My sister had an old Pentax she never used, so I commandeered it and began photographing everything I saw. It wasn’t until I discovered the work of W. Eugene Smith, including A Walk to Paradise Garden, his Pittsburgh photographs, and especially his photographs from a Haitian clinic, that something clicked. I knew then that I wanted to photograph people, primarily in black and white.

Today, I also work in color, but I continue to return to black and white because I believe it leaves more to the imagination. Without the distraction of color, the viewer can concentrate on the subject, the shadows and light, and the mood of the image.

I graduated from the New England School of Photography in Boston in 1975. Over the years, I have expanded my practice to include many kinds of photography, but my heart has always belonged to the street.