How and when did your interest in bodybuilding get started?
My interest in bodybuilding got started when I was around 42 and had to imporove my health. One thing led to another and I ended up in several small competitions when I was 50 and 55 respectively. I bought a gym in Antioch, California, which I also operated.
Why African bodybuilding?
African bodybuilding because there are clearly so many great bodybuilders in Africa who are never seen or heard of. To show them on musclephotos.com is great because no one else is covering this subject matter.
Which African countries have you visited?
The Gambia, and I don't know that country very well, only what 2 weeks there exposed me to when I was hired by Afrinat Airlines to photograph The Gambia for the development of tourism.
Female bodybuilding is in a pitiful state in Africa, do you think your work can help, or are you focusing only on male bodybuilding?
If there are female bodybuilders in Africa I would certainly want to give them publicity, too, but my sense of bodybuilding in Africa is that it is primarily a male sport and activity. No female bodybuilders have been mentioned to me or made contact with me.
You are now working on Cote d'Ivoire and Uganda, what next?
I am also working with a bodybuilder from Ghana named Sam Addo. I photographed him here when he was in the United States. Because I was able to make him fairly well-known through my web site, his manager and I think we will be sucessful in raising money for him to go to the Universe. I would be happy to work with bodybuilders from any African nation, bodybuilders who are actually in Africa. They're the bodybuilders who need notice and assistance, not the Africans already in the United States.
Anything else you would like to add?
It is great to work with African bodybuilders, but I think they may give me more credit than I am due. I'm just a marketer, photographer and promoter. They just need to be seen and known in order to reap the benefits they deserve from their hard work. I want to avoid building up any cult of the personality around me. I would rather it be around them. There is always the suspicion about anyone on the Internet concerning their agenda and motivations. I am always happy to provide references -- bodybuilders here in the USA who know me well and with whom I have worked. My motivations are spelled out clearly on my web site musclephotos.com (What this web site is about . . .) My motivations are photographic, charitable, and that's it. While I like to sell my photos to the general public, and frequently ask for signed photo releases, I am not a person who is strongly motivated by money. My wife and I are retired, we have what we need to live, and anything extra is just pleasant for us but not essential.
