I was born in New Jersey and moved out to California to attend film school at USC. I remember I had to choose between NYU’s graduate program in photography or film school at USC. I don’t believe anyone should be cold if they have a choice, and a childhood of long, grey winters solidified the need to escape.

My photography is mostly portraiture. My first book, HIGH SCHOOL, looks at social groups in suburban high schools throughout the US.  My second book, RIGHT, is about a college of home-schooled kids who are being groomed to be the future of the Republican Party.  For that book, I had to spend a lot of time away in Virginia, where it gets cold, so my next book is about boyhood in California.  Lucien, my 8 year-old son, keeps bringing boys home for me to photograph.  I have a show coming up this summer from another series I am developing on uniforms.

My film work grew out of my photography and, at first, was more straightforward, narrative documentary. My first short, Catholic School, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was bought by Bravo, showed internationally, and lead to documentary work for PBS.  Artistically, I was interested in blurring the lines between still and motion and began to create gallery and museum installation pieces, using motion picture film with skaters and ROTC recruits. I like to think of them as visual puzzles.

I am interested in how people learn to negotiate the world and find their place and group.   I am looking forward to coming up with ways of pushing the limits between still and motion commercially.