TL;DR

• Long Beach, California native. Moved to Italy in 2012 with no roadmap and no family precedent for crossing an ocean.
• Spent over a decade as a professional travel photographer covering thirty countries across Europe, Northern Africa, and East Asia.
• When the pandemic collapsed the travel industry, shifted from commissioned work to building original fine art collections now displayed in homes and businesses worldwide.
• Coined the term Photograflâneur – wandering with a camera and intention, capturing not just where I go, but how it feels to be there.
• Founder of Waven Root, an LLC housing multiple connected projects built to support independent creators.
• Based in Liguria, Italy, with my wife, daughter, and two dogs.
• Fifteen percent of all fine art sales go to charity.

Origin Story

Red was my first favorite color.

I was in high school, enrolled in a film photography class I probably didn’t take seriously enough at first. Then one afternoon I slid a blank sheet of photo paper into the developer tray and watched an image slowly surface under the red glow. Something came alive in that room. I didn’t have the words for it then, but I understand it now: I had made something real out of light.

That feeling never left.

My early years as a photographer were experimental. I worked across the United States shooting product photography, action sports, and heirloom portraiture – trying different styles, chasing what felt right. Over time I understood that photography, for me, was never just point and click. It was about playing with perspective and noticing what other people walk straight past. An unassuming doorway. A shift in light. The expression on someone’s face in a crowd.

Around the same time I was trying to establish myself as a photographer, social media and online marketing were beginning to take off. I had built my first website in 1998, so I had always been technically curious and inclined. I saw the value of SEO, analytics, and digital marketing early – first for my own business, then for others. When I first moved to Italy, those were the services I primarily offered, with photography often folded in alongside. That period sharpened the business and strategic side of my thinking long before travel photography became the focus.

That instinct carried me further than I expected.

After moving to Florence, Italy in 2012, I’ve worked as a professional travel photographer, partnering with travel companies and covering nearly thirty countries across Europe, Northern Africa, and East Asia. It was the kind of work that sounds like a dream because it was. I’ve stood on the third tier of the Colosseum, balanced too much gear on the back of a camel in Morocco, braved the wind atop Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh, and trekked across Istanbul before the city woke up. I try to be hopelessly lost wherever I go, because that is usually where I find something worth keeping.

Then the pandemic hit and the industry collapsed almost overnight.

So I shifted.

I stopped shooting for others and started building work that reflected how I actually see the world – slower, more intentional, more human. The landmarks matter, but the feeling of being somewhere is what I am really after. That pivot led to my first original fine art collections, and watching those pieces find homes in private collections, offices, and businesses around the world has been one of the most quietly satisfying things I have ever done.

That collapse forced me to lean into every other skill I had. I built my own computer, developed this website from the ground up, and spent long stretches solving problems I had no formal training for – because when you’ve nearly lost everything, figuring things out stops being a hobby and becomes a lifeline. That period reminded me what I was actually capable of.

Somewhere in the midst all of it, I found a word.

I coined the term Photograflâneur to describe exactly what I do: wandering through the world with a camera and intention, capturing not just where I go, but how it feels to be there. The Photograflâneur blog grew out of that – a place to share the stories behind the frames, reflections on travel and creativity, and practical insights for other photographers and curious travelers. Not just where I went, but what changed in me while I was there.

Traveling the world, immersing myself in other cultures, and being welcomed into communities that owed me nothing left an impression on me. I felt fortunate in a way that demanded a response. So I started giving back. Fifteen percent of all fine art sales through this site go to charity, supporting disaster relief, environmental conservation, and humanitarian aid. That desire to support others kept growing until it became its own project: Waven Root, currently in development as an LLC housing multiple connected projects built to carry that mission further than a single camera ever could.

Home is now Liguria, Italy, where I live with my wife Gaby, our daughter Aveline, and our two dogs. The light here is different. The pace is slower. I am still learning from it every day, still pointing a camera at things that stop me, still building, still becoming.

If something here pulls at you, if it makes the world feel larger and somehow closer, then it has already done what I hoped it would do. Reach out and connect. We’re just getting started.