Hello

I was born in the South Western United States the same year the Berlin wall came down. I’m an artist, a builder, a gardener, a tinkerer and a “thought” explorer.

 

For the past 5 years, my wife and I have been transient, living on the road out of our van for a contract job that took us from east to west and everywhere in-between. It was during this season of a whole lot of hustle and physical exhaustion that I dreamed up Natural-State Wet-Plates. I picked up photography in my early twenties and I have always dreamed of one day making a living from it.

 

When my contract job came to an end, my wife and I made the choice to plant roots in Arkansas where my sister Lacey had just opened a boutique hotel, the Beard and Lady Inn. It honestly did not take much to convince us. Northwest Arkansas really drew us in with her beautiful mountain views and small town communities. After being in a different place almost every other week, the lure was strong to stay in one place and live a simpler, slower paced life.

 

I felt the pull toward wet-plate photography after witnessing so many others around the world partake in its renaissance. This forgotten process from a bygone era, seemingly has no relevance in our modern society of endless technological advances, and yet…there is so much we lose by forsaking the old for the new. 

 

Wet-plate photography forces us to slow down and take in the moment just as it is.  No filters, no edits, no photoshop or fancy presets; just you and me and the light in this moment, frozen in time. A little bit of modern-day alchemy if you will.