About Harry

I document people, places, and moments at the edge of meaning, where story, memory, risk, and lived experience intersect. My work lives across photography, writing, conservation, and community service. These aren’t separate pursuits, but interconnected ways of paying attention: to the land, to people, and to the moments that shape us long after they pass.

Much of my life has been defined by movement, geographic, personal, and existential. This way of living has shaped both how I work and how I relate to others: grounded, adaptive, and deeply present.

A Foundation Forged at the Edge

For more than 30 years, my worldview and work was shaped by BASE jumping and skydiving, environments where presence isn’t optional and consequence is immediate.

I traveled extensively as a photographer, videographer, instructor, manager, community leader, and documentarian within these communities, capturing people as they confronted fear, freedom, loss, and aliveness in real time. Living and working at the razor’s edge of life and death taught me how to remain calm under pressure, how to witness without interference, and how to honor moments that cannot be repeated. That foundation continues to inform everything I do from how I frame an image, to how I hold space during moments of transition.

Coming Home Through Flight

Paragliding brought me home to California’s Central Coast. Flying the dunes of Sand City, CA and soaring the Monterey Bay coastline from the air reshaped my relationship to this place. Seeing the bay from above deepened my connection and sense of responsibility to it. Not just as a landscape, but as a living system and shared home.

Through local paragliding and pilot community building, flight became an extension of my earlier years in BASE and skydiving. Less about risk, more about presence, stewardship, and belonging. That aerial perspective is also what led me to Surfrider, first through the chapter’s beach cleanup program, and eventually into deeper service and leadership within the organization.

Photography as Practice

Photography is one of my primary tools, not simply for making images, but for preserving memory, meaning, and legacy.

I work across portraiture, events, lifestyle, editorial, social content, and environmental storytelling. My approach is observational and human-centered, shaped by decades of documenting people during moments of intensity, vulnerability, celebration, and change.

I’m especially drawn to work meant to be lived with. That is printed, shared, and remembered, images that serve as anchors for personal history and collective memory. Based in Monterey Bay, California, I work with individuals, local businesses, organizations, and communities across the Central Coast and beyond.

Project Recover & the Work of Remembrance

One of the most formative chapters of my life was my involvement with Project Recover, a nonprofit dedicated to locating, documenting, and repatriating American service members missing in action from World War II.

Through this work, I supported digital asset management, content creation, website, messaging, and field documentation, while also participating in deeply human memorial processes with families awaiting answers for generations.

Bearing witness to the return of fallen Americans, and helping families reconnect with long-lost stories, profoundly shaped my understanding of service, sacrifice, and legacy. This experience reinforced my belief that remembrance is not about closure, but about connection.

Monterey Bay Photography, Conservation & Community leadership

I currently serve as an Executive Committee Member of the Surfrider Foundation Monterey Chapter and as Program Director for the Blue Water Task Force, Surfrider’s flagship water quality monitoring program.

This work places me at the intersection of environmental science, public health, and community advocacy. Through water quality monitoring, reporting, and outreach, we help protect coastal ecosystems and ensure safe access to clean water.

Monterey Bay is not just where I live,  it is central to my identity and my sense of responsibility. Conservation, for me, is local, relational, and rooted in connection.

Writing, Transition & Meaning-Making

Alongside visual work, I write about loss, resilience, reinvention, and the quiet lessons that emerge from lived experience.

This includes memorial writing, reflections on community, and explorations of how people navigate grief, risk, and change. I approach this work gently, less interested in answers than in honest witnessing.

How I Work

Professionally, I bring together creative direction, content production, digital asset management, and strategic marketing support. I help individuals, organizations, and small businesses clarify their voice, tell their story, and build visual systems that serve them over time.

I’m known for being adaptable, steady under pressure, and collaborative, equally comfortable leading, supporting, or integrating into existing teams. People often come to me not just for what I create, but for how I listen. My work supports nonprofits, small businesses, conservation organizations, and community-based initiatives throughout the Monterey Bay region.

Currently

I’m based on California’s Central Coast, continuing to expand my work at the intersection of photography, conservation, writing, flight, and remembrance, building a practice rooted in care, craft, and long-term impact.

If you’re interested in collaboration, documentation, or work that values depth as much as aesthetics, I’d love to connect.