Your Bio

Here I am. Author, photographer, lyricist, explorer, lover of fine wines and interesting women, captured in my native habitat, on the prowl for duplicate snowflakes and the elusive image of Jerry Garcia that, as any second-hand cosmologist knows, appears so often among newly washed sidewalks.

In this world of concrete objects and reliable causality, I am a classical philologist with a keen interest in the evolution of early urban metaphors in Homeric Greek; since 1972, the founder and president of three software companies specializing in the application of machine intelligence to a wide spectrum of optimization problems and behavior models; and the author of several books (including the multiple-award winning Beyond Humanity – Cyberevolution and Future Minds which I co-authored with Greg Paul, who was the dinosaur advisor on the original Jurassic Park movie). In addition to an upcoming murder mystery, I am also working on a book, Vanishing Landscapes, a photographic journey through the rapidly disappearing farms and towns on Maryland's eastern shore (due out next fall). And I have just recently signed a contract to begin work on The Ghosts of the Mother Lode a photographic book of the gold and silver ghost towns in Nevada, Arizona, and eastern California (due out when I have spent my advance!).

Photography is an on-going theme in my life. In junior high school I adapted a Kodak Brownie to take photomicrographs of algae and protozoa for science fair project (and won first prize.) Years later (in 1969) bought a Nikon FTN in an Army PX in the Far East. I still have and use that FTN as well as a Nikkormat that sits atop my Nikon SK-e Trinocular microscope for my photomicroscopy addiction! But I slowly laid aside photography, pursuing other interest until, one day, a little over two years ago, I walked by a camera shop and spied a Nikon D70 in the window. I now roam the world with a Nikon D200 and my 18-200mm zoom lens. At one time I also carried a very thin Sony T-33 point-and-shoot for those times when I am without the Nikon D200. However, I generally believe that the camera doesn't matter - it's the vision and skill of the picture taker that's important (although I do admit to regularly blaming the camera for many (make that most) of my poor images!)

I view photography as a way of recording the world around me. Although I take the occasional landscape picture (especially on my recent ramblings around southern California), I really enjoy the often up-close patterns of humanity left in the ruins of old buildings, in deserted farms, in abandoned warehouses, in the streets of small towns, in the frameworks of factories, harbors, railroads, the cold iron of American industry; in the mysteries of anonymous graffiti spray painted on highway overpasses, and in an unusual face caught in an ordinary life.



Bio Photograph (c)2005 Ken Burington
All other photographs unless otherwise indicated, (c)1994-2009 Earl Cox

Gallery Categories

Deserts

4 galleries with 797 photos

Updated: Jul 24, 2009 2:42pm PST

Southern California

27 galleries with 5179 photos

Updated: Apr 07, 2008 12:23am PST

Landscapes

5 galleries with 779 photos

Updated: Jul 23, 2009 2:55pm PST

Personal History and My Life

3 galleries with 277 photos

Updated: Jul 25, 2009 1:05pm PST

Explorations and Discoveries

4 galleries with 139 photos

Updated: May 27, 2007 9:24pm PST

Women

2 galleries with 37 photos

Updated: Oct 15, 2007 9:24pm PST

Festivals and Celebrations

2 galleries with 632 photos

Updated: Oct 02, 2007 1:24am PST

Cities and Towns

11 galleries with 1095 photos

Updated: Jul 03, 2007 11:19pm PST

Urban and Industrial Scenes

4 galleries with 396 photos

Updated: Oct 15, 2006 8:43pm PST

Journeys

2 galleries with 456 photos

Updated: Jul 14, 2007 4:27pm PST

Odds and Ends

6 galleries with 589 photos

Updated: Oct 29, 2007 12:50pm PST

Interesting and Unusual Places

5 galleries with 502 photos

Updated: Oct 05, 2006 12:42pm PST

Nature and the Outdoors

7 galleries with 743 photos

Updated: Sep 03, 2007 11:03pm PST

Photography

1 gallery with 9 photos

Updated: Mar 29, 2007 5:45pm PST

Protected

5 galleries with 190 photos

Updated: Nov 17, 2007 4:57pm PST

Other

5 galleries with 706 photos

Updated: May 02, 2008 4:23pm PST