Since 1985, my photographic work has examined women’s lives.  I began with self-portraits, taken during a time of transition in my life.  That work soon extended to photographs of other women in their homes.  I wanted to make their work and lives visible.  Women are still faced with an ambiguous status in our society, as many of their roles change, and many traditional expectations remain.  Photography, with its apparent realism and its rendition of static detail, gives me a way to question and record the complexities of women’s lives.

A similar motivation led me to undertake my “women artists in Iowa” project, as the multifaceted work of women artists has long been underrepresented and undervalued.  In 1998, I published a book entitled Lifework: Portraits of Iowa Women Artists.  My collection of photographic portraits resists the myth that successful women artists are anomalies.  The women I picture are among the many talented artists who have built thriving artistic careers, often while juggling numerous roles as teachers, mothers, businesswomen, etc. My photographs also defy the tradition of imaging women as beautiful objects.  The women in these
portraits are creative, not created.