Photography and intrigue have taken me places I had only dreamed of in my childhood. My work is primarily focused on phenomenal feats and the daily endeavors of dynamic cultures. My adventures in documenting culture began in Utah. In the beginning I found it hard to believe spectacular performances of avant-garde culture happened right in my hometown of Salt Lake City. I fell in love with fire-breathers. My heart and soul were set aflame, captive to the flashes of whirling flames; my camera and I would never be the same.
Salt Lake City culture had mesmerized me. I became enthralled with documenting the performances of local fire performances in the valley. Capturing a vivid moment, a second, half a second, let's say four seconds; freeze framing the meditated actions of fire performances. It is unlike other photographic outcomes, as images become the expression of pure fire motion.

The "Fire Movement" in Salt Lake City then lead me to one of the world's most unique festivals; Burning Man, a place where free expression is valued and taken to the extreme. It is a temporary city of expressionist culture, which gives illumination to the ideal freedom of speech. I have participated and documented the extraordinary feats and fires of this unsurpassed artistic culture. As a cultural anthropologist and photographer I found the need to seek out contemporary ways of life. I tend to delve into the present day, to anticipate the future within our changing world.

The Great North, the call of the wild led me to the unknown of Alaska to pursue my degree in Cultural Anthropology. Surrounded by wilderness, frosty landscapes, fields of wildflowers, earthy people, and tremendous mountains I fell in love with its beauty. I traveled vast expanses of the romanticized land, to see all I could see, to know Alaska. After a few winters I longed for a change in climate.

Madagascar called out to me and to my Alaska companion. We flew to the African island of Madagascar, intrigued by the mystery of its culture, art, flora and fauna. We spent three and a half months discovering island's facets of thriving and endangered life. In the beginning I was camera shy, timid to photograph the beautiful people. Yet everyday I was called "Vazah!" which means stranger. We were pointed-out walking down the street, in markets, speeding or slowly inching by in a taxi-brusse passing though a village. Children barley old enough to talk, spoke up in a tiny voice, Vaz-ah. Children and adults would yell out, "Bon jour, Vazah!" Sometimes I felt like a leper, a freak of nature with red hair and freckles. After a month or so I thought about how much attention I received, and began to reconcile with my Vazah-self, and I carried my camera with me in the streets, to the markets and beaches, to document the Malagasy ways of life, so different from ours.

As an artist I seek out time and space unique and atypical of an American's daily existence. As an anthropologist I seek to share aesthetic and knowledge of other places and people. My ultimate goal is to work for National Geographic. I want to make a make a name for myself, to be known for my work, whether I am displayed in a gallery or museum, or in the pages of National Geographic.