I was about 8 when my folks gave me my first camera, a Kodak Instamatic that took square black & white pictures. Since we were living in Italy and traveling often all over Europe and the Mediteranean there were plenty of amazing people and places to take pictures of. Time passes and once again I'm back in Italy; this time in my late twenties with my ex-wife and our year old daughter living in a centuries-old villa in the rolling vineyards of Tuscany. I was in Italy to study music but every day I looked around me and all I saw were people and things I wanted to take pictures of.
One beautiful October day while sitting outside the villa looking across the colorful fall vineyards I leaned over to my ex-wife and said, "I want to be a photographer. That's all I want to do." And just like that a whole new world opened up in my consciousness. A few months later we moved to Hollywood where I hung out a shingle and started calling myself a photographer, taking pictures of anyone who'd sit still long enough for me to get my camera out of my bag.
It's been an extraordinary journey over the past 30+ years with some of the most beautiful, interesting, famous and talented people stepping in front of my cameras. I've done it all, from fine-art nudes to architectural and interior design, weddings, parties, landscapes and gardens. As they say in Italy, "Tutto fa brodo." It all makes soup. And for sure it's been one fabulous minestrone of a career.
