Street-Level Photos

On this part of my website you will see images from the other life I have led and continue to pursue, that of observer of the world around me as a photographer. My photographic work is represented in European collections including the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, France, and the Neue Sammlung in Munich, Germany as well as in university and personal collections in this country including the Carpenter Center at Harvard.

Here you will find images some of which relate to fishing and many which do not; you will find personal documents, pictures of Americana, and river and water surface images. For those interested, these images will soon be available to purchase as prints. Please also check back for new photos as I post them.

Rivers and Waters

The following photographs of waters and rivers are the result of over 40 years of looking at, into and through water, mostly while fishing. I began by photographing mostly urban rivers and streams near my home in New York State in the late 1980's, but it was perhaps the experience of dry fly fishing for steelhead in British Columbia which inspired my more recent work with the subject. I told my friend Tom Morgan how much I enjoyed the meditative aspect of step and cast, step and cast in a repeating movement down the pool or holding run. His comment was "that's the great thing about dry fly steelhead fishing; the fish don't interupt you very often!" So true, and it allows plenty of time to just be and look, and most of the time you are looking at the water surface where your fly is, trying to spot any suspicious swirl or bulge indicating the interest of a fish. Doing that for hours on end does something to one's mind and I think one of the things these photographs are about is that state of mind of focused, attentive looking which is also open and receptive.

Big East 2001

McKenzie River, Oregon 1999

Torrent River, Newfoundland, 2002

Amerika

These photographs come under the heading Amerika, spelled with a 'K' because that is how it is spelled in Sweden which is where I came from as a child. The 'K' also indicates that these photographs are the response of an outsider, a foreigner, an immigrant, slowly finding himself at home in this vast, varied, vibrant, ironic and inspiring country, landscape and culture. When I was about 8 years old my family took a cross coutry trip from Toronto, Canada to the Rockies and California and all through the USA and that mode has stayed with me since then throughout my life. I would have trouble counting the number of times I have driven across this land, looking for mysteries of fish and photographs, pleased most with the unexpected. Many of the photographs you will see here are from these journeys, mostly by car. You will also see photographs here taken in response to the places I lived, and lived close to, such as the streets of New York City or the central valley of California.

The Twelve / Point Reyes, CA ca 1993

Tunnel, Albany, NY, 1972

Fish Watches Man, Chinatown, NY 1980

Travel Trailer, Wyoming 1973

Walking Home, Central Valley, CA ca 1993

Personal Documents

My Father at Artist's Point, Yellowstone National Park, 1988

Per at about age 15 in Ennis, Montana