About the Photographer

I want to tell a story.

Photography is an extension of my love of literature and story telling.  In college I studied literature and this background in letters informs my photos. Each of my pictures convey some sort of meaning beyond what is visible.  As a photographer, I use light instead of words, proportion instead of similes, and composition instead of the grammatical structure of a sentence.   

I choose to work with traditional materials because it suits my meditative style. It is like working in a dream state.  For those few hours, there is nothing else that exists for me except for the image I am printing.

There is something romantic about the traditional process, the idea of light burning an image onto a negative and using the negative to filter light onto photo paper. The process feels intimate and connected. I feel as if I’m sculpting the image, focusing and shaping the light into the picture I see in my mind.

It has been said that all art is autobiographical, the reflection of its maker.  These photos are my autobiography.  They’re not only records of where I’ve been or what I’ve seen, but also of how I see and feel.  I want these photos to call to you like a good book, to be filled with the beautiful vagueness of a haunting poem.

-Russ Roca, 2006

russ@xcapekey.com

562-331-1705 (serious inquiries only)