Biography

I'd like to say I've been studying photography since the age of three. However, I was in my twenties before I began experimenting with photography and in my thirties when I packed my bags for photography school in Montana.

Photography has become my creative outlet. It's a way of seeing my surroundings differently, finding meaning in the unexpected, exploring my inner spirit, and sharing my visions with others.

While shooting in train and tractor yards in Montana, I stumbled upon the iridescent landscapes of corroding metal. That was the beginning of my addiction to rust and fine-art photography.

Documentary photography has given me deeper insight into issues I would have otherwise been hesitant to approach. In 2003, I received a grant from the Independent Feature Project in St. Paul, Minnesota to undertake a documentary project on five refugee women living in the Twin Cities area. In the fall of 2008, in collaboration with Project Common Ground and funding from The Colorado Trust, I completed another documentary project entitled Pursuing the American Dream - Stories & Photographs of Immigrants in the Grand Valley.

I currently reside in East Lansing, Michigan with my husband Dan and our son, Eli.