Over forty years ago I started developing what I now call Time and Matter Photography; pictures made entirely of nearly any material or matter. Unlike conventional photography using silver halide or inkjet, Time and Matter Photography creates a historical, collectible artifact that possess the emotional, or spiritual based on the matter used. Pictures can be made entirely from the ashes of a loved one, hair, soil, or nearly any material. allowing ideas to be turned into photographic art that is defined in part by the material itself. A Time and Matter Picture can be made of the actual subject using the subjects own matter that is DNA/Biological, Geological, Chemical, or even products which makes photography extremely special.

My Art is about asking questions pertaining to life & death which I can see and feel, but I cannot understand.

My Time and Matter Artwork extends into the realm of Memento Mori with the understanding that everything will eventually die. Memento Mori is a Latin phrase that means “remember that you must die).

Memento Mori

Memento Mori is a philosophical reminder of mortality, while my Time and Matter Photography creates artwork that can be made from the subject’s own matter which can help remind us about being human.

As an artist, I can turn some of the subject’s own matter into a picture. Or if the subject is non-human, I can also make pictures using something from nearly any subject matter to make the artwork from. Simply put, my art documents and transforms matter into photographic artwork that is made of the subject’s own matter.

Even something strong like iron will over time eventually oxidize and break down which is also a form of dying since it transitions to become part of something else, just as erosion will break down even the largest strongest materials. And just as many living things go somewhere hidden to die, they will turn back into soil so the living plants and animals can survive because of prior living things.  

When we look at life, it seems that everything on the planet has something to teach us…before and after death!

Photo Ash Memorials

Photo Ash Memorials are for people who would like to have some of their their loved ones ashes turned into a beautiful photo memorial. I also make pictures entirely of hair, or a picture can be made from human compost. Each picture only requires a small amount of a loved ones remains to make a memorial picture from that are very special.                                                  

The Earliest surviving Photograph is held by the Henry Ransom Center at
the University of Texas

Click here to visit Henry Ransom Center

hrc.utexas.edu/niepce-heliograph

• The Niépce Heliograph was made in 1827

• It is the earliest photograph produced with the aid of the camera obscura known to survive today!

•  PHOTO-MUSEUM.ORG

•  AS NOTED BY THE PHOTO MUSEUM.ORG

•  In December 1827, Daguerre met Niépce in Paris.

• In 1829, Niépce suggested to Daguerre that they create a partnership to contribute to the development of the invention of heliography. A contract was signed between them in December 1829. After Niépce’s death in 1833, Daguerre kept researching and later invented the daguerreotype, a photographic process which was easier to make, and the exposure times were only of a few minutes. The daguerreotype became a success and made Daguerre world famous.

• WIKIPEDIA NOTES: The physautotype (from French, physautotype) was a photographic process, invented by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce and Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre in 1832

• Daguerre introduced the daguerreotype process to the public on August 19, 1839, at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris. Later that year, Daguerre and Niépce’s son sold the rights for the daguerreotype to the French government and published a booklet describing the process.