This early photograph confirmed the direction that was natural for me. I found my way to University of South Florida’s Art Department in 1970. It was an excellent environment, with a charged faculty and Graphicstudio in full swing. Since my teachers and fellow students were primarily engaged with self-conscious art making, I followed their cues at first. But I quickly realized that there was no match for pure, spirited and unadulterated camera work. And with this image, I realized too how form mediates content, and I was on a journey.

I got the idea of photographing at home, in South Beach, during my undergraduate studies at USF. This notion would become an urge, and bring me back home after completing my graduate school studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Man at Rowlett Park, Tampa 1973