In my colorful urban photography, my subjects are buildings and architecture, vivid paint and graffiti, interesting textures, and decorative details. My first urban photographs were simple compositions featuring bold colors and forms in flattened space. However, returning from East Asia in 1990, I was inspired to replicate in my urban American photography the richness of pattern, color, texture, and decoration that I had captured in my Asian photographs. I wanted more color in my urban photographs as well as a more intriguing use of depth than the traditional illusion of real space. For the latter, I began to photograph overlaid images, such as shadows, objects behind fences and windows, and window reflections, in which one object's shape is defined or modified by another (a shadow or a reflection) superimposed upon it. With this, my urban photographs became more richly textured and spatially ambiguous, though still guided by vibrant color and/or strong forms.

My urban photography includes many photographs of the mannequins that populate our cities from behind glass, and reflections in glass or metal that capture the refractive nature of city life. Moving beyond the natural layering and ambiguity created by reflections and shadows, I also create surreal layered images. Before digital photography, I created in-camera multiple exposures using color slide film. I discovered that multiple exposures yield luminous, surreal colors otherwise unobtainable in photography. I have many surreal, intensely colorful photographs that derive from these in-camera multiple exposures, sometimes enhanced with sandwiched slides or later digital manipulations.