During the post-World War II era of the late 20th century, the northern suburbs of Chicago saw dramatic development of residential and commercial construction. To preserve portions of the natural forest which originally covered the land, the Illinois Forest Preserves were created by the various counties in the area. As I grew up there, the forest preserves always impressed me with their state of natural, undeveloped character. Through the seasons, the forest areas changed their colors in the fall, were covered in winter snow, were inundated with spring rain and provided a lush canopy of green in the summer months. When my parents moved to a retirement community near the Des Plaines River in 2008, I began to photograph this portion of the preserves during my periodic visits. Over ten years, I captured images of the preserves and the river in all states of weather and seasons.
My introduction to photography was at around 7 years old when my dad converted a coal bin (we now had gas heat) to his darkroom. However, my interest really took off in college. I’ve been a member of NVPS since 2018 having moved to Virginia from Southern California to be with our grandson and his family. My past work has been published in Black and White Magazine, LensWork and LensWork’s “Seeing in Sixes”. I’ve been a Canon shooter forever – I still have my FTB, TL and F1 cameras as “museum” pieces.
