Coming of age in Bristol, Connecticut in the 1960s, teaching and nursing were advanced as the two primary choices for career-minded young women. I became a high school English teacher, later a newspaper columnist and eventually, an author of two books of informational non-fiction.

I had been an art minor in college, studying art history, painting in watercolors and dabbling in film and darkroom techniques. While these pursuits deeply engaged me, I was not brought up believing art was a serious occupational option.

In the late 1990s, my youngest daughter became a nationally-ranked equestrian, competitively showing her string of ponies. To quiet my anxiety, as she guided her ponies over series of jumps, I began taking candid photographs of her and the other riders at our barn. Fast forward to a line of greeting cards, two solo cross-country road trips, publication of my third book, Linger Longer: Lessons from a Contemplative Life, and photography began to take up more of my time and commitment.

In 2017, I discovered a group of regional photographers who traveled around the world photographing abandoned buildings, and, like magic, my love of and passion for urbex photography—urban exploration—was born.

I have had access to countless abandoned schools, hospitals, nightclubs, asylums, farmhouses, churches, barns, and junkyards.

Each time I enter these haloed spaces, I am deeply moved by their ruin and their beauty. I hope you will take a moment to honor the individuals who lived and even perished in some of these buildings.