Ok, I’ll admit it, I am weird. But weird is good in my book.

These are trying days in photography… ubiquitous cameras, a free venue for worldwide distribution and everyone thinking it would be a cool job. Therein lies the problem, how do we as photographers distinguish ourselves in this oversaturated market?

I believe success lays in revealing how one thinks and sees through their images, not just creating another pretty picture. The metaphor I use with my students is the fingerprint. In other words, what unique contribution can you make to the world that satisfies your inner curiosity and love of art, balanced with the real world of making a living, and still communicate a quality that is truly recognizable as you.

The worst thing you can be as an artist in the 21st century is to be unmemorable. I predict this image will not be an easy one to forget. It has authenticity to it, it was not set up, it was not planned or pre-productioned to death. It just happened.

My good friend Jim Wilcher and I were talking shop… art that is, he and I were rummaging around my Montana house looking for cool props for Jim’s sculptural works. We happened onto my father’s old foldable ruler and we were both intrigued, so much so that we began to mess around with it upstairs and I made this capture on the spur of the moment.

It is one of my favorite images of 2016, as it truly communicates my aesthetic – concept first, execution a distant second.