I have never been as interested in the hardware of photography, as wonderful as some of it is, as in the images produced by whatever the means. I began using a Dories camera – a cheap version of the famous Diana camera, which first became available in the 1960s. These toy cameras use 120 roll film and, because of their plastic meniscus lenses, produce fuzzy, unpredictable images. I did mostly black and white images, but also experimented with color. Interest in Diana photography remains high with many photographers still using the cameras, some with updated features.

From my statement accompanying images in The Scholarly Review: 35th Anniversary Graduate Studies, University of Wisconsin-Superior, 1986.

Souvenirs of Lost Moments

One by one, the moments of our lives fly by with an alarming rapidity. In our effort to stem the tide, or at least to slow it down, we often have to turn to the camera for help. The camera, we hope, will enable us to capture the reality of an experience, allow us to hold it in our hands (in the form of a photograph), and paste it in the scrapbook of our lives along with the other events both momentous and small. My snapshot album contains those babies and brides, solemn graduates and smiling friends, but I find myself photographing as well, those quiet, ordinary places and moments that make up the bulk of much of our existence. The elements of poetry and of mystery inherent in the commonplace become apparent and a cause for delight.