As a photographer and printmaker, I am interested in urban culture. Finding the beauty in decaying architecture and isolated street figures are favorite subjects of mine. This interest was prompted by my graduate research on graffiti writers in New York City and Europe as well as my work teaching in Brooklyn and North Philadelphia. I am particularly interested in illustrating the parallel solitudes that occur in cities: there may be hundreds of people on the street, but everyone is in his or her own world, virtually ignoring his or her surroundings. Where others see eyesores, I see texture, color, and value. In 2002-2004, I focused on one particularly busy street corner in Astoria, Queens, photographing people from the steps of the elevated Broadway station. Drawing from my photographs, I created silkscreen plates, adding color to the images while preserving my subjects' mood and gestures. As I move on from this body of work, I am drawn to urban texture found in my architectural surroundings in Washington, DC. I continue to use photography as inspiration for my screenprints, transforming images through mediums.