Of the great genres in photography none has been as little investigated or as much taken for granted as landscape. With few exceptions the definition of landscape photography and the expectations of the viewer remain the same as they were shortly after the invention of photography in 1839.

This definition is based on the idea of the sublime – overwhelming beauty and the relationship of human to Nature. Initially exemplified by the Hudson River School of painting, the definition was codified in photography by the classic Modernist photographers such as Edward Weston and Ansel Adams.

Since graduate school I have tried to challenge the assumptions we have about photographs. I have used the landscape as a subject because of my interest in the question of what is appropriate subject matter for photography. Often my work has been intended to question the preconceived notions we carry about what a photograph should look like; what pieces of the world are “appropriate” for photographing.