Hi. Welcome.

I'm David. I was born in Honolulu, grew up in China, and live and work in Seattle, Washington, USA.

In 1978, my father brought an Apple II into the house to help him design weaving patterns, and my relationship with computers was fixed forever: from the start, they've been identified in my mind with art, not spreadsheets.

In my life, I try to practice the Dogma of No Dogma, and my approach to photography reflects that perspective: from carefully structured, detailed floral imagery to chaotic, semi-abstract street photography, it all expresses something essential to me.

What's your deal, anyway?

Generally I get pretty incoherent when I'm asked to explain myself. But here are an interview and a couple of blog posts wherein I discuss my aesthetic concerns and where I'm going these days.

The two-sentence summary is that after 20+ years of working in a dark, blurry, black and white style, I realized it was on the verge of becoming only a style, and not a way of interrogating the world around me. So I set myself a new constraint of shooting in color, sharp, and wide angle, trying to find a new way of exploring my perennial aesthetic concerns: using abstraction and decontextualization to challenge my own understanding of the world. Now I’ve circled back around and it’s anyone’s guess what the hell I’m doing.

The Leica Camera blog talked to me about what is now "my old work" in The Abstraction of Reality.

Then I had a crisis of artistic vision and set myself new constraints to work in: New beginnings, or, tossing the 50mm out with the bathwater.

A few months later, I posted an update: There.

“Although this is all self-serving and unsubstantiated bullshit, it is upscale, artisanal self-serving and unsubstantiated bullshit of the highest order.”
– Mark Leyner

The gear answer

Mostly Leica. Currently mostly an M10 Monochrom and a 50mm Summilux. They just make sense to me. I also use a Fuji XT-2 and a range of lenses for more “SLR” type projects. Still shoot some film. Scan with a Nikon macro lens on the fuji or the monochrom using the excellent Essential Film Holder and Negative Lab Pro. Works for me.

Wait, aren't you the UX designer guy? Where's your design portfolio?

If you came here from LinkedIn, you may have been looking for my design portfolio. I don't have a public portfolio. Feel free to reach out, though, if you have an interesting project you want to talk about.