Website: davidroephotos.com

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I believe art produces a reaction.  For a photograph to be considered art it needs to elicit an emotion either positive or negative from the viewer.  Anything else is only a snapshot.  I discovered this years ago when I visited an exhibition of photos by Robert Mapplethorpe.  Some of his photos were beautiful while others were shocking.   But they all made me feel something.  That is the mission of my photos – to make the viewer feel.  In the TV shows American Idol and the Voice the judges all comment when a contestant makes a song their “own.”  That is how I feel about photography.  What can I do to take a photograph and make it my own – to communicate to the viewer.  That is the difference between taking a snapshot and creating art.

I make photos that attempt to communicate how I see the subject whether it is a person, place to thing.  Most often this is not the way it came out of the camera.  I want to bring out what the viewer can’t initially see.  To show what is behind the subject.  To make photos that call attention to those things that are commonly overlooked.  I look for the unknown within the subject, the stories not obvious to the viewer.  My goal is to go beyond the normal and allow the viewer to get a better understanding of the subject and of me as an artist.

My photography style is wide open.  I can find something interesting in any kind of subject.  I look for sharpness and clarity in my photos.  I try not to focus on one type of subject, but rather to find what interests me whether it is an interesting person or an inanimate object.  My photos may not always be a truly accurate representation of the subject, but an accurate representation of what I am trying to communicate.  My subjects may not always be pretty, but I try to see what makes them special.