I was born in New York City. After graduating from Bowdoin College in 1980, I worked as an alpinist and extreme skier in the western United States, leading sponsored expeditions within the U.S., Russia, Peru, Bolivia and New Zealand.

At age sixteen I heard Thelonious Monk and Art Blakey at Carnegie Hall and became interested in jazz, collecting over four thousand jazz records and taking the music with me wherever I went. I remember a cold night in Peru, consoling myself at an altitude of 20,000 feet by listening to John Coltrane, hoping that this wouldn't be the last music I'd hear before my climbing partner, my tent and I were blown off the mountain and down into the Amazon basin. During my mountaineering days, I developed my skills as a photographer doing magazine work and shooting ski posters.

In 1991 I left mountaineering and decided to pursue a career as a photographer. After moving back to New York City, I started photographing jazz musicians. I have worked for most of the major record labels and my photographs have appeared in the leading jazz publications. They are also in a number of private collections. As a jazz lover, I have a deep respect for the musicians and the music they create. As a photographer, I only hope that my work reflects the passion I feel for this art form.

My work has been collected in a book on jazz called "JazzKatz" (jazzprezzo).

I collaborated with Dena Katz on a personal landscape project on the Utah Salt Flats that culminated in the 2006 book "Salt Dreams" (powerHouse books).