My interest in the making of images began as a child, age 5 – 6, in the late 1930’s. At that time my father, Arsham, a family physician of Weymouth, bought a sixteen millimeter Kodak movie camera and began taking home movies in color. In those days the exposed film would be sent off to Kodak in Rochester, NY for development. As soon as the processed film came back (which took a couple of weeks), my mother, Agnes, and I would join my father in the living room. There he had set up a projector and screen for us to watch his magic unfold. During the viewing, classical music such as Chopin’s Polonaise, would be played in the background on the phonograph.

Although an occasional snapshot would be seen, taken on a camera which to me looked like a folded up accordion, movies continued to be the main form of image taking.

Then World War II erupted and the movies stopped since my father enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a doctor and was shipped to Hawaii.

During my late grammar school years in the mid 40’s, my eyes were opened to still photography by an older cousin, Edward Alemian of Weymouth. He had an Argus 21 with which he took and developed his own black and white pictures. It was a fascinating experience, standing next to him in his home darkroom in the basement, watching an image come to life in those pans of liquid.

From that moment on , I badgered my dear, wonderful mother to buy me a camera. She eventually did when I reached high school in 1947. It was an Argus 21.

Like most everyone else in those days, I started out with Kodak black and white film and then by 1949 tried Kodak positive film. Many of those pictures didn’t come out well, but those that did, I still have. My first color slides were taken on my high school football team’s trip to Florida in 1949.

Early on my images were mostly of family and friends. Some landscape scenes were attempted.

The 1950’s up to the mid 1960’s were taken with college, medical school and post-graduate training. By now I had two lovely daughters who were my main photo subjects. However, I was beginning to be drawn to color, shapes and angles.

After serving from 1966–1968 as an orthopedic surgeon in the U.S. Army, I went into private practice in Weymouth. Beginning in the 1970’s I did considerable photography on Martha’s Vineyard of landscapes and seascapes.

A course with Allison Shaw in the 1990’s really focused me on composition, color, texture, and graphic design. For the past 20 years I have done a lot of travel photography and have tried to incorporate these elements in my images.