My profession is not photography but science. I have served on the faculties of UCLA, Mount Sinai Medical Center (New York), Columbia University, and Ohio State University, researching the genetics of common diseases. A large part of my career has been spent studying the causes of epilepsy; I have also published numerous original papers on diabetes, thyroid disease , gluten-sensitive enteropathy, and other diseases as well as on mathematical genetics.
However, I have also been practicing photography for over 60 years, starting as a pre-teen. I suffered the smell of developer, stop-bath, and fixer and learned to master many now-obsolete darkroom devices: enlarger, filters, washer, dryer, and photopaper. In 1988, it took only about two minutes with a scanner and computer with Photoshop to convince me I never wanted to see the red or yellow lights of a darkroom, or to smell the noxious chemicals, ever again.
I enjoy nature photography in all forms, but my contribution to my most recent exhibition at the Audubon Center in Columbus, Ohio, focused on insects and arachnids (spiders). Arthropods (creatures with exoskeletons and jointed limbs — insects, arachnids, crabs, etc.) are a challenge to photograph. They look so strange and so unlike cuddly mammals (toy stores do not sell plush cockroach dolls). People tend to fear insects; they do not like to look at them and certainly do not want to interact with them. But for me, as a scientist and a photographer, their behaviors and appearance are so interesting that I want to record them in all their tremendous variety.
However, for strange and varied looks and behaviors, human beings are the best subjects, even more than insects. The human face, the human form, and the human posture and body language convey more variation than insects do. Humans are more of a challenge to capture and to make compelling. I hope to feature human subjects in future work.