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 At
age twelve, I had already decided I wanted to be either
a minister, a photographer or maybe a fireman and maybe
even a football star. Today, many years later, primarily
as a life long photojournalist, I see that I was best
able to recognize and capture on film the truly heroic
saints among those of us who appeared to live ordinary
lives in ordinary places. At age 28, while a staff photographer
for the Seattle Times, I was awarded the  Pulitzer
Prize for news photography in 1975. This prize winning
photograph entitled, "Lull in the Battle", powerfully
depicts firemen in a moment of deep reflection after battling
a house fire. The photograph speaks of courage, dedication
and humanity during the troubled times of the Vietnam
War, when many thought our country was other than courageous,
dedicated or humanitarian. Like all of my photographs,
this picture allows us to travel beyond the obvious and
capture the essential about the individual as well as
the collective. It urges us to take another look and remember
who we are.
Numerous times during this multi-media career my peers
have acknowledged my photographic eye. In addition, to
the Pulitzer Prize, I also received the first Edward Steichen
Award for news photography and was named regional Photographer
of the Year in 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1977 by the National
Press Photographers Association, an organization for which
I served as President. I also served on major newspapers
across the country including the St. Paul Pioneer Press,
the Los Angeles Times and New York Newsday.
 To
fully explore both human and spiritual life, I recently
took to the back roads of America. During three consecutive
cross-country summer road trips, I logged nearly 50,000
miles in the 48 continental United States. Randomly, I
would stop at small towns across the states and document
the daily lives of citizens whose paths I had just crossed.
These pictures are symbolic of simply this: Each human
being as a unique and equal soul, peacefully living out
their days on the Earth. It is this sacred humanness that
I look for in my own life and in the lives of my photographic
subjects.
Now
I understand that my pictures simply mirror my own personal
philosophy, my love of photography, and my spiritual reverence
for the Earth and the creatures that populate her. My
greater prayer however, is for my photographs to inspire
us to see as sacred our inner-connectedness with each
other and with the Earth, while putting aside judgment
of self and others to recognize that we were all created
equally in The Creator's image.
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