Walk in Beauty 

This series is inspired by the closing prayer of the Navajo Blessing Way ceremony, and dedicated to the sacred union we humans feel when immersed in places of natural beauty. Places that we no longer take for granted.

I was lucky enough to grow up on 100 acres of Pennsylvania fields and forest, with a stream running through them. From the age of five, this was my landscape, and I understood intuitively that I was part of its magic. Nothing separated me from the creek I waded, the crayfish I stalked, the rocks, bones, and bird nests I collected.

My family belonged to a small religious sect based on the writings of a 17th century Swedish mystic, which taught that everything in the natural world had a spiritual correspondence. Thus, the concept of the universe being composed of multiple realms, seen and unseen, came naturally... just as human interconnectedness with Mother Earth (which I knew by instinct) forms the bedrock of indigenous wisdom.

It is this sense of synthesis, spirituality and enchantment that I try to channel with the subjects of these portraits, as we collaborate to make something both personal and universal, timely and timeless. We enter a creative zone together, and the photography becomes a mind/body experience, connecting us to the land, water, sky and sun.