Sometimes I don’t see the No Words_Daily Pix until I get into my office. Hepcat posts the picture from his home computer while I’m in the shower, making breakfast, or searching for Teen Spirit’s shoes. Then it’s time for OSFO’s donut at the Mojo and drop off in the school yard. 

When I finally see the pix – it’s always a nice surprise. But today’s picture really made me smile with pride:

Hepcat has such a great eye. He has been a photographer for most of his life. Growing up on a farm in Northern California he discovered art at an early age as his grandmother and mother were both artists. He picked up a camera when he was a pre-teen and has had one around his neck ever since.

As a teen, he had an annual art show  at the local library with his grandmother (who studied painting with Hans Hoffman). Their work would hang side by side; huge vote of confidence and support from his family about his interest in art and his desire to pursue it as a career.

At Bard College he studied photography with Doug Baz, who was and is an important mentor (and now a reader of OTBKB).  He also studied painting with Elizabeth Murray andfilmmaking with Warren Sonbert. When he graduated from college he arrived in SoHo ready to embark on a photo career. He assisted Larry Williams, a great editorial photographer, from whom he learned a great deal on the set of rock album cover shoots and spreads for Rolling Stone Magazine. He even had some pictures in Rolling Stone.

Graduate school at CalArts followed, where he studied with John Baldassari and got an MFA with plans to teach at the college level.

Back in New York, the  Amiga computer, marriage, kids, the need to make money, the Internet, the dot.com boom and bust, Cisco — it all converged to keep him away from photography for a few years.

Then he came back. In 2003, he was outsourced and given a severance. "There were no computer jobs anyway, so it seemed like a great time to try to be a photographer, again," he always says.

The digital photography revolution was the right moment of re-entry for him, as he knows everything there is to know about computers, cameras, and photography (if it sounds like bragging, I’m allowed. As his wife and all).

Hepcat is an all or nothing kind of guy and he threw himself into the photography like he throws himself into everything he does…Intensely.

90,000 pictures later: "You gotta shoot and shoot to really get your chops back," Hepacat’s got his chops back.

And then came a phone call from a Start-up in Manhattan. He’s back in the computer biz…and pretty happy about it. The photo biz isn’t the most profitable.

He’s hoping for a gallery show soon. And he can print any of the No Words_Daily pix pictures for you. He’s also available to do amazing portraits for you…

The guy’s got a great eye.