Someone else gave this series the title "photo totems" and it has stuck. Its not appropriate, while I hope these portraits are given a sense of spirit by being combined with natural elements I am a Plains Indian instead of a Pacific Northwest Coast Indian.
The computer has become a really useful tool as now it is easier to work with layers of images to evoke dimensionality and sharing of textures like sculptors practice. In the past when I was working with this idea, fifteen years ago, it was via sandwich printing which was much more trial and error, matching up of film densities, hoping to get a desirable print. A lot less successful.
