The Rhythm of Repeating Patterns

Chordata, 2020

A commonly asked question for artists is, Where do you get your inspiration?

For me I think it’s fair to say that over the years my photographic work hasn’t been influenced by just one particular source of inspiration. Rather, my focus has evolved from shooting cityscapes in black and white, to color-saturated industrial nightscapes, to some people and animal portraiture, and more recently to botanical and travel photography.  

I've found new enjoyment in photographing plants and flowers.  Beyond their beauty, I'm drawn to similar patterns that appear throughout the natural world..structures that nature seems pleased to return to over and over, perhaps due to their simplicity or symmetry. 

Much as rhythm inspires dancing, these common motifs inspire me to make connections among natural subjects.  An example is this image above which I'm calling Chordata; I'm attracted to the repeated structure found in fish skeletons and fern leaves.  Of course any naturalist will tell you that plants aren't chordates, but it seems clear that nature had the same idea in mind as both ferns and fishes came about.