CURRENT MISSION

To see and photograph as much of the planet as possible. To understand the earth's struggles and fight for the prosperity of the real people everywhere and against oppression and greed.

ABOUT ME

I'm a very fit, healthy, agile 64 years old, very involved in national and world politics and try to make statements through my photographic art. I earn my living photographing events, weddings and portraits. My curiosity is extensive and relentless, and I have a sympathetic ear, good self-knowledge, and try to understand things dynamically, in terms of systems. I have two wonderful grown daughters.

PHILOSOPHY

My life is full of personal joy—of learning, creating, exploring and being with my friends. But I grieve the tremendous injustices in the world today. I try to stay informed and participate in non-violent actions to raise consciousness and ultimately change our unhealthy, out of balance system in the US, while lending support to liberation movements around the world, especially the Palestinians. I believe it is up to each individual to stay informed about health, since our commercial system tries to sell very dangerous products over the long term.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I love to meet new people who share a similar openness to difference and curiosity about the struggles for freedom and justice going on right now in the world. I love to meet other artists and to share my art with anyone with a curious eye.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Paris last year, was hosted by two excellent visual artists. I have been doing this all my life, long before I joined CSI, and have from time to time hosted people sent to me by friends and stayed with friends of friends myself in Europe. It's almost always been an expansive experience.

Interests

Photography and graphic art in general. Literature, history, theater, dance, music (I'm also a jazz pianist). Nature, pre-history, geology, wildlife, the environment, politics, psychology, philosophy.

• wildlife
• arts
• books
• literature
• theater
• photography
• dancing
• environment
• politics
• movies
• traveling
• music
• jazz
• piano
• communications
• geology
• history
• languages
• psychology

Music, Movies, and Books

Butiful, Fellini, French cinema. I don't get to enough movies. I read mostly history and politics, but my degree is in literature, so I love Flaubert, Joyce, Proust, Mann, Musil, George Eliot, Kafka, Rilke, Faulkner, Rushdie, Nabokov, Moravia...the list goes on. I'm a jazz player and fan, but also enjoy new age and folk, especially political folk. I'm very at home in the world of classical music.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I've created a multi-media encyclopedic CD-ROM on the history of jazz piano with Dick Hyman, sold worldwide (1999). I've curated a show of 125 photographers using unconventional methods (2007). I've self-published a number of photo books. I've traveled to Newfoundland, Minganie, Wales, Mono Lake and Glacier National Park, and around the world (12 countries in 10 weeks) in 2014. I've photographed 14,000-year-old sculptures in France (2006). I've created a body of work that had a 5-month show at the Musée de l'érotisme de Paris 2008-09.

Teach, Learn, Share

The visual, the invisible, pre-history, psychodynamics, politics, nutrition, travel, ironies, stories.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Curiosity, languages, images, perspectives on the USA & world, discoveries, insights, recommendations of books, movies & music, travel experiences.

Countries I’ve Visited

China, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Madagascar, Mongolia, Nepal, Turkey, United Kingdom, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Germany, Italy, United States

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