Here I am. Author, photographer, lyricist, explorer, lover of fine wines and interesting women, captured in my native habitat, on the prowl for duplicate snowflakes and the elusive image of Jerry Garcia that, as any second-hand cosmologist knows, appears so often among newly washed sidewalks.

In this world of concrete objects and reliable causality, I am a classical philologist with a keen interest in the evolution of early urban metaphors in Homeric Greek; since 1972, the founder and president of three software companies specializing in the application of machine intelligence to a wide spectrum of optimization problems and behavior models; and the author of several books (including the multiple-award winning Beyond Humanity – Cyberevolution and Future Minds which I co-authored with Greg Paul, who was the dinosaur advisor on the original Jurassic Park movie). In addition to an upcoming murder mystery, I am also working on a book, Vanishing Landscapes, a photographic journey through the rapidly disappearing farms and towns on Maryland's eastern shore (due out next fall). And I have just recently signed a contract to begin work on The Ghosts of the Mother Lode a photographic book of the gold and silver ghost towns in Nevada, Arizona, and eastern California (due out when I have spent my advance!).

Photography is an on-going theme in my life. In junior high school I adapted a Kodak Brownie to take photomicrographs of algae and protozoa as part of a science fair project (and won first prize.) Years later (in 1969) I bought a Nikon FTN in an Army PX in the Far East. I still have and use that FTN as well as a Nikkormat that sits atop my Nikon SK-e Trinocular microscope for my photomicroscopy addiction! But I slowly laid aside photography, pursuing other interest until, one day, a few years ago, I walked by a camera shop and spied a Nikon D70 in the window. I now roam the world with a Nikon D200 and my 18-200mm zoom lens. At one time I also carried a very thin Sony T-33 point-and-shoot for those times when I am without the Nikon D200. However, I generally believe that the camera doesn't matter - it's the vision and skill of the picture taker that's important (although I do admit to regularly blaming the camera for many (make that most) of my poor images!)

I view photography as a way of recording the world around me. Although I take the occasional landscape picture (especially on my recent ramblings around southern California), I really enjoy the often up-close patterns of humanity left in the ruins of old buildings, in deserted farms, in abandoned warehouses, in the streets of small towns, in the frameworks of factories, harbors, railroads, the cold iron of American industry; in the mysteries of anonymous graffiti spray painted on highway overpasses, and in an unusual face caught in an ordinary life.



Bio Photograph (c)2005 Ken Burington
All other photographs unless otherwise indicated, (c)1994-2010 Earl Cox