It lies in a box, in a locker, in a warehouse somewhere on the outskirts of Toronto. An old faded 3 1/2 x 5 color photograph from the mid-1980s. If you saw it in your developed roll from the mini-lab, you would toss it in the garbage. It is over-exposed, out of focus, and the wing of the plane is barely in the frame. Technically speaking, it is an awful picture of a Styrofoam airplane circling above at the mall. I was 12-years-old and in Grade six and it was then I decided that I wanted to be a photographer - not a pilot. I have shot hundreds of thousands of photographs since that day in Winnipeg and it still is one of my favorites.
After finishing high school with a transcript that neither my parents nor myself were proud of, I was off with my cameras, moving out West to pursue my dream. After eight years of shooting freelance assignments and a variety of contract jobs, I decided to return to school to study photojournalism professionally. It was at SAIT in Calgary, Alberta that all my doors opened and I landed my first full time job at the National Post in Toronto in 1999.
I have been shot at, arrested, attacked by elephants, tear gassed, walked amongst the ruins of Ground Zero, spat on by a humpback whale, had dinner with Desmond Tutu, crashed in a hot air balloon, robbed at knifepoint and have only had to wear a suit twice. I have traveled throughout SE and NE Asia, China, Japan, Africa, Mauritius, India, North and South America, Europe, over 40 states in the US, Northern Canada. I have photographed the Pope, the Queen, and Jennifer Aniston all in one week - the same week that I had to don a tie.
My work has appeared in numerous publications including: The National Post, MacLeans Magazine, The Globe and Mail, Getty Images, Newsweek, The South China Morning Post, Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Outpost, The LA Times, Explore Magazine, and Outside Canada, to name a few.
I chose this lifestyle for its freedoms, to be creative and to be myself. You are given intimate access to people and their stories - their tragedies and triumphs. They let you, if only for a moment, look into their lives, record a memory and have you share it with the world. I have the choice to observe the world, or to photograph it - I choose the latter, it's more truthful that way.
