Photograph by Dan Mangan
This gallery interprets landscapes and waterscapes in the American West: Hawaii, California, Nevada, and Utah ... and the American East: the Chesapeake Bay region, North Carolina's Outer Banks, and my home in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Appearing fleetingly on our visual margins and seemingly oblivious to our presence, they are the closest to the truly wild we may ever encounter. Yet for most of us, they are always present either by sight or sound.
These are the birds, which combine wondrous aerodynamics with an astonishing diversity of color, form, feather, and function. As a class, they are remarkable accomplishments of evolution and sheer survival -- the only scientifically-verified descendents of dinosaurs. Yet they are necessarily light in weight to enable flight: the common American robin weighs in at just three ounces, the hummingbird less than a quarter of an ounce. As an attentive bird observer for 40 years, I look on birds as unbidden gifts, allowing me an intriguing subject for photography. Note: a later addition to this gallery consists of several butterfly images, a new-found interest both in terms of biology and photography.
Parisians simply have panache. I love to roam their wondrous city and photograph them in the wild.
Here, my photographic tribute to those who call England home. The country's visual appeal starts with its rich history, literally set in stone: structures ranging from the humble to the monumental are everywhere to be found, so ancient they're practically one with the geology. The fabled English Empire's reach once extended into every corner of the planet, her colonies governed from one of the world's first supercities. Yet it is the English countryside which comes to mind when one thinks of a more placid, measured life. To us, their American cousins, their myriad idiosyncrasies and prodigious breadth of dialects and customs are at once baffling -- yet somehow familiar. What's more, these characteristics can be readily interpreted in visual form. This is what I try to present here.
These images explore the nuances of form, line, geometrical symmetry, light and shadow. Several are painterly expressions emphasizing color and tonal relationships more often seen in a painting rather than a photograph.
The people of Nicaragua are its strength. An American friend tells me why he repeatedly returns to this small, mostly poor Central American place: namely, to re-connect to the human race. Here is a brief photographic chronicle of the rich vein of humanity flowing through this proud, intriguing country.
When photography became something more than just a casual pastime for me, botanicals and florals were the conduit. With their geometric symmetry and limitless color nuance, they remain a core focus of my art.
Old barns are the standing stones of the American countryside, relics of a time when working farms overspread the land like a patchwork quilt. These structures remain integral to our national consciousness, resolute reminders that hard work in close contact with the earth, productivity, and ingenuity are essential elements of the American character. The "Pennsylvania Barn" has earned a particular distinction. From the mid-1700s until roughly 1900, immigrant farmers and their descendents introduced to Pennsylvania the functional genius of their familiar German and Swiss farm architecture, a form eventually adopted by farmers well beyond the borders of Pennsylvania. Not only did form follow function. The barns were simply beautiful.
Many of these barns have vanished along with their farms, but thankfully many remain. Today there is a growing commitment to preserve and if possible restore these cultural and architectural treasures. This gallery contains images of several of these structures, built over 150 years ago, all save one in the immediate vicinity of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Standing in the midst of the horrific Civil War battle, they afterwards provided shelter to the wounded. These structures form an honorable chapter in the telling of the American narrative. As such, and as works of art in their own right, I gratefully include them here.