I was commissioned to shoot a portrait series featuring the nurses at Johns Hopkins Hospital accompanied by bio-captions describing the important roles these nurses brought to their respective departments. Having shot at hospitals a lot over the years, I realized my biggest logistical hurdle was going to be coordinating the schedules of the doctors and nurses. So I proposed shooting pseudo-David Hockney photographic collage style. I wanted to shoot this way just in case someone was unable to make the scheduled time for the portrait sitting. This way, I could use another person as a stand-in with a white coat to fill the edge of the frame of the person who was there, come back and re-shoot the person who missed the session, then fix it in post. I was thrilled with how they turned out. It offered both a visually unique styling AND scheduling flexibility for the doctors and nurses. Final prints were 24×38 and set in a white matte with a black frame.

When I was shooting these images of my daughter, I instantly recalled the work of one of my favorite photographers, Aaron Siskind. His expertise and talent in the darkroom is almost unmatched. While in college, I had the opportunity to go through an original portfolio box of his prints from “Terrors and Pleasures of Levitation”. There are artists that stay with you. Their images come back to you through your own viewfinder. Mr. Siskind’s work is the type of work that does not translate well into books. You simply have to see his prints in person…or be standing in the right place with the right lens while your daughter is flying through the air.