This is my America - and these photographs are my souvenirs - from places I have visited in my search for that 'common thread of humanity' that inevitably binds us together. These photographic journeys have taken me to places both notable and obscure, and down paths well-traveled and well-hidden. From an old diner along Route 66 to the smile of a little girl holding a gemstone at a street festival - these images mean 'home' to me; this is my America - old and new, splendid and sordid, serious and indifferent, engaging and nonchalant, ever-changing yet timelessly similar. You may also notice my proclivity for taking close-ups; this is something that 'crept-up' on me in my photographic style, in the sense that I didn't realize that I was doing it until I examined a group of slides together on my light-box one night, and it made me think about 'why' was I being drawn to faces up close? And after many a month of pondering that question, I think I have the answer ... it is because each face is a work of beauty unto itself and worth examining with long, unbroken, continuous, unabashed stares ... and since the unspoken rules of our societal dynamics deem such 'studying' of faces improper (or perhaps even rude!) - I therefore study the faces after-the-fact -- through these photographs. These, then, are the photographs that calm me, and help center me when I read the news and sense a world going astray. These photos remind me of the commonality of 'human emotions' - laughter, tears, smiles, gazes - in people brown, white, black and every shade inbetween. Everyone, I'd like for you to meet - everyone!