I am a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism with a degree in photojournaIism, but my love of photography dates back to the Sears Tower camera and darkroom kit I received for Christmas in 1966.  I may have been the only 11-year-old in Winston-Salem, NC with a custom built darkroom. While in high school in Dekalb County, GA, I got a job as a darkroom technician so I could perfect the art of photographic printing. What I discovered, instead, was the importance of a point of view.

My biggest photographic influence was Don Rutledge, a Black Star photographer for whom I processed and printed thousands of images before I was eighteen. It was his influence that lead me to pursue an education in journalism.

After college, I worked as a journalist for several publications, They included The Sheby Daily Star, Home Missions Magazine, and Visions, a publication I started to promote volunteerism in North Carolina. I spent a year teaching photography at Chowan College before my career took a very different path.

In 1979, I accepted a job with the Governor's Office of Citizen Affairs in North Carolina. That path led me to a creer in political consulting that continues today. In 2014, I joined the staff of Media Partners, Inc., a full service advertising agency in Raleigh, NC. I not only use photography in that capacity, I keep my camera close by and continue to document the world around me.