Turning 80, I was at a crossroads in my life. There was most certainly more behind me than ahead. I felt the need to organize a retrospective of a lifetime of work as well as introduce new images. Inspiration had not left me.
Some photographs are intended to document what is in front of the camera while others are interpretations by the photographer. I wish to go beyond the documentary, to explore the visual language that brings forth the emotions of the photographer into the finished image. I provide the beginnings of a story, and I want the viewer to complete it.
I was born in Chicago in 1941 and grew up there. When I was a young teenager, I received a chemistry set and set up a lab in my parents’ basement. I don’t know if that gave me a head start but I excelled in chemistry and ended up majoring in it at Roosevelt University before going on to graduate school at Case Western Reserve University.
At the same time, I was interested in photography and making pictures. I would marvel at the presentations at the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology. They were eye opening. So, it seemed only natural that I would get a camera and build a darkroom next to my chemistry lab in the basement.
But once I began my full-time chemistry studies, photography interests were set aside.
That is until I moved to Laguna Beach and started using a rented darkroom. I ended up enrolling in the photography program at Orange Coast College. What had been a hobby had become a passion as well as a profession. From there I went on to build a career in Los Angeles as a professional photographer. So long, Joel Mark, the chemist. I specialized in architectural photography, corporate, and editorial work.
