BIOGRAPHY

Photography has been a serious passion for Mike for most of his adult life.  He is entirely self-taught,  with all of his formal higher education in engineering.  He hold Bachelors and Masters degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Cleveland State University (1979) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1982) respectively.                                                      

His move beyond being a strictly serious amateur photographer was sparked by, of all things, an article that appeared in Discover magazine.  The article was about a new type of imaging sensor made by Foveon Inc. of Santa Clara Ca., and used in Sigma's SD9 DSLR camera.  Having contemplated the move to digital for some time, Mike bought the camera and a 17-35 lens and was instantly hooked on digital photography.

Since 2006, Mike has been showing and selling his work at art festivals and open studios all over New England, with occasional forays as far south as Virginia.

With all 5 of their kids moved out, Mike and his wife Jan (the real love of his life) are now empty nesters, living in an 1880 farm house in Natick Massachusetts.

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ARTIST STATEMENT

The two types of photographic images I produce definitely come out of two different brain halves.

My color kaleidoscopic-like images are rational left brain products.  Lots of geometry rules to follow.  Things having to add up to 360°.  Acute angles everywhere.  Mirror images in abundance.  The main focus is to turn images of human constructions (buildings, bridges, … both famous and not so famous) into new images that could plausibly pass as a different, wilder and/or more whimsical human construction.  Sometimes the connection between the former and latter is obvious, mostly however it is not.  In all cases, the final product is both mesmerizing and mysterious.

My black and white images are emotional right brain products.  With these, I am generally chasing the concept that often “less is more”.  The subjects are mostly simple things that we pass by in our ordinary days but too often miss.  For these subjects, color quite often gets in the way, so I discard it.