About // the Night Shift
My background in photography began very humbly, and in the middle of the night. During the winter months I drove for a car service — at night, all night. After several years of passing popular sites around town, deserted in the dark and the early morning hours, I started taking pictures, trying to capture what I was seeing. It wasn't easy at first: my camera wasn't very good, and I had the weather and a dozen other factors to contend with. Many times I'd set up my gear and land the frame I wanted, only to be snapped back to reality by the dispatcher calling my next order — break everything down into the small camera bag, go, come back another night. Sometimes I went back to the same spot over and over before I finally got the shot.
After thousands of photos snapped in the darkness and steady equipment upgrades along the way, I gradually honed my technique. What fascinates me is the interplay of nature and decay on man-made architecture — train bridges, old repurposed buildings, the urban landscape wearing down. Sometimes the back door of a place says more than the front facade; people don't always realize what they're looking at, even a familiar landmark seen from the back parking lot.
Over time that pull led me out of the Twin Cities and onto the road. Abandoned power plants, factories, hospitals, hotels — I started chasing them wherever they still stood, driving across the country for a single frame inside a building the world had already written off.
In the summer of 2020 the work changed. George Floyd was murdered a few miles from where I lived, and the streets of Minneapolis became something I couldn't shoot from a distance. I set the long exposures aside and picked up documentary work — marches, vigils, the movement — because it was happening in my own city and it mattered.
These days I'm based in Las Vegas, still working after dark, still drawn to the places left behind — just under a different desert sky. I hope you enjoy my ever-expanding galleries.