Mike views the world differently than most. Whether he is traveling by wooden boat with villagers in Laos or exploring a small-town market in Siberia, he is always looking to photograph the moments that will transport the viewer into another world. Mike wants the viewer to spend a moment in the worlds of his subjects, to experience life in someone else's shoes.

Mike began learning about photojournalism while attending Towson State University in his home state of Maryland. He spent all four years of college shooting for the student newspaper.

After graduation Mike spent two months backpacking through Europe, observing different cultures and becoming fascinated with traveling. He then returned to Maryland and became the photographer for a business publication called The Daily Record, but his traveling experiences always remained on his mind.

After nearly two years, wanderlust took control and he grabbed his camera and headed back to Europe. Mike spent six months backpacking this time, including a brief freelancing stint with the Budapest Sun in Hungary, before settling in Germany for a year working as a freelancer for Reuters. He realized during that time, however, that he longed to be a part of a photo staff at a daily newspaper and secured a position with the Daily Record in northern New Jersey.

During his four years of shooting news, sports, and features for the Gannett-owned newspaper, Mike also had his work published, via the Associated Press, nationally and internationally in newspapers, magazines, and books. He won several local and national awards. While working for the Daily Record, Mike also wrote and photographed travel pieces on Morocco and Cuba. His initial Cuba visit, when he took part in a photography workshop, has been followed by five more visits. This is all part of a project to document life in Cuba in the twenty-first century.

Mike left his New Jersey newspaper job in mid-2003 to travel the world yet again, this time concentrating on Southeast Asia and Russia. He is currently working on a book that will take readers on a photographic journey across Siberia and the Russian Far East.

"Photography," says Mike, "is a wonderful way to bring people closer together. A woman planting rice in Vietnam or a high school student playing soccer in New Jersey. My goal is to tell their stories so that others can see through their eyes and begin to appreciate the differences and similarities that exist from neighborhood to neighborhood and from continent to continent."