About Me
I was born in Glendale, California, and currently live in Los Angeles. I went to small private schools, none of which had any real art programs. I received my high school diploma at 16 and did not go to art school, nor did I have any formal training in photography. Luckily my childhood was filled with art and artists. There were always art books and hours spent at the Brand Art Library and weekend trips to museums. My brother and I were lucky to have had original art and photography on the walls of our home as we grew up. My parent’s home looks like an art gallery, with a collection of awesome art from various artists. I spent many years in front of the camera posing for my mother who had gone to art school as a teenager. When she would have me pose she would have a difficult time getting me to “come out†of my dark moods. I hated posing. When I was about 12 years-old, I finally found my comfort zone behind the lens. It wasn’t until my late teens that I really jumped in head-first, calling myself a photographer. My brother was a great influence on me, he started painting in his teens and actually selling his work. He had his first exhibition when he was 16-years-old and started a whole new trend in our community of young artists. He traveled to Europe with the money he made at his first show and took off from there. I use a Nikon F4. Though the world of digital has descended upon us, I still prefer to do most of my shooting on film the old fashioned way, having each photo developed to my exact specifications. Occasionally, I use a digital camera, but not for exhibition work. When I started to travel, I took my camera everywhere. I sell limited edition prints of my photography and I keep them “limited†because I feel that makes me work harder to produce more, quality work. I am half Irish, and have been to Ireland several times. In the spring of 2003 I spent several months in a large drafty castle in Tipperary County, Ireland. With a lot of time on my hands I shot a lot of self-portraits. As a result, I came up with, “Woman Reclining on Sofa.†This piece appealed to my patrons, and is still sells when shown. Being a woman, one automatically assumes I would have a complete understanding of the female form; however, it is a constant challenge to find the right model, the right composition, and the right light, in order to bring the best image to film. “The Boxing Gloves,†was one of those challenges which I have dedicated to my brother, Bryten Goss, a contemporary figurative painter who died after a sudden illness October 26, 2006; he was just 30 years-old and my mentor. “The Boxing Gloves,†was his favorite photograph that I had produced up to the time of his death.Aside from my career as a photographer, I have been actively involved in, The Bryten Goss Foundation for the Arts, which my mother started after my brother died, to carry on his legacy. As an artist, I believe his work should be known and seen everywhere, and not just among his collectors, but in the art world at large. He was a great inspiration to me and a lot of our friends.Life is inspiration for my art, all the bad and the good inspires my urge and my final product. There are of course people and other works of art that inspire ME, but that inspiration that I feel more than the person or piece of art itself, is what I use. Those who have inspired me as a person and as an artist are, first and foremost, my brother and his work, and my mother and her work. Also Annie Liebowitz, Helmut Newton, Weegee, James Nachtwey, Caravaggio, Ayn Rand, Hemingway, Charles Bukowski, Renoir, Degas, John Singer Sargent and my friends, Alex Prager, Mercedes Helnwein and Arthur Conway Hubbard. I love a good film so they are also very inspiring for me, but really any piece of work that makes me “feel something†inside, inspires me, and the same goes for any life experience or lack thereof, which can cause any creative emotion to emerge. Annie Leibovitz summed up photography, “You don't have to sort of enhance reality. There is nothing stranger than truth.†I believe that. I try my best to take the viewer into the underbelly of the world of black and white photography; a medium which I feel is more complex than is generally understood, and shoves the truth in your face. I am only beginning to explore color, so there is a whole new world to adventure through as I grow as an artist, and I look forward to that journey.
