em tuoba

Growing up near Detroit in the early 80’s, I first began photographing the urban decay around me using an old Kodak 110mm camera. As my images and style developed, I never lost touch with that core curiosity about ruins, and my eye is constantly drawn towards the discarded, the overlooked, and the under-explored.

I have been taking photos since my first trip overseas in 2000, but I began photographing in earnest in 2003. Since then, I have studied under Oliver O’Hanlon and Paul Sanders. For several years, I was a member of the IMAGES International Photography Club of The Hague, and I won their Photographer of the Year award in 2012-13.

In 2018, I was among the 20 photographers selected to participate in the CERN Photowalk.

In 2019, I exhibited my photography at the Lausanne Art Fair through Galerie Manualis.

I count among my inspirations the poppy, colorful focus of Martin Parr, the sparse and sleek meditations of Vincent Munrier, and the gritty, documentary-inspired approach of Richard Koci Hernandez.

The shots on the site were taken with a number of different cameras over the years (Olympus E-500, Canon S95, Nikon D90, D7000, etc.). Now I’m primarily shooting with a full-frame (FX) Nikon D750, DX 7200, and a Panasonic GX-1.

When I’m not immersed in creating images, I like to play ice and roller hockey, tennis, and hike in the alps of Haute-Savoie.

In addition to photography, I have been writing since elementary school. I’ve worked at the Michigan Daily and also as a freelance journalist for The Holland Times. While at the Times, I wrote a chapter in two flash fiction chapbooks, which were published by the English Bookshop.

In addition to my job as a business analyst and shipping expert in the commodity trading industry, I write creatively and am a member of the Geneva Writers’ Group write creatively. I am currently working on a nonfiction book about the bulk shipping industry.

Having a foot in both of these seemingly-disparate ‘worlds’ (that of a cog in the corporate machinery that has become our pseudo-capitalist religion as well as in the creative arts) lends me an insightful perspective and often fuels/funds my creative endeavors. However, I don’t really believe these things are as disparate as the binary philosophy prevalent in the West would have us believe (e.g., emotions vs. intelligence, thoughts vs. feelings, body vs. mind, etc.). I am much more drawn to the dualism of the Tao te Ching and accept both aspects as two sides of a connected whole. 

 

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