Welcome to my website. If you want to read a short photographically oriented biography, this is the place. If that sounds boring, move on to the images!
I don't recall exactly when I first picked up a camera. Certainly, there was my mother's Box Brownie 620 roll film camera and my father's Argus 35mm, but the moment that ignited my interest was the day a family friend gifted me a medium format twin lens reflex camera. I don't remember the make. I still remember exactly where I was at that moment - such was my excitement - something that has never abated. I think I was twelve.
I built my first darkroom in the basement when I was 13 years old, learning how to install the electric service, plumbing and drywall in the process (I do not recommend this!). I went on to study photography in high school, where two generous teachers enrolled me in the photography class, introduced me to large-format photography and provided the loan of a Calumet 4x5 monorail view camera. I took the obligatory photography class in college and during my graduate years, was encouraged by photographer (and then Departmental Chairman) Paul Kohl to enroll in classes at the Maryland Institute, College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, Maryland (You should check out Paul's amazing images). I cannot say enough good things about Paul - he is a great person and artist. MICA was an invaluable experience for me with regards to the content and continuity of my portfolio as well as presentation. During that time, I briefly worked as a professional printer and produced prints for some major publications.
I went off to pursue a career in historic preservation and before long began documenting historic structures and landscapes for submission to the Department of Interior's Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) as well as similar documentation for state preservation agencies. You can find some my work in the HABS-HAER on-line collections of the Library of Congress.
The majority of my work is black-and-white, silver-based photography. I still prefer it to digital prints, although many photographers produce genuinely beautiful prints in that medium. In the field I generally follow my own version of the "Zone System" procedures popularized by Ansel Adams and have studied with photographer John Sexton and Anne Larsen (both highly regarded photographers - check them out!). They have also been invaluable in refining my own vision and technical abilities. About 10 years ago I began to experiment with masking during my print making process. Photographer and inventor Lynn Radeka makes a fantastic masking system that I purchased. The results of my experiments with masking were at the same time both subtle and dramatic (if that makes any sense). I found that it improved my images so much that re-printing more than half of my portfolio became necessary. I now include masking in my workflow for most prints. One can always improve.
I hope you enjoy the photographs.
David C. Berg