Rusty Jaw (Ed Roppo)
Artist Statement
My photographic interest primarily centers around the interplay of the corrosive and creative forces of nature acting on man-made surfaces, devices and structures.
Initially, my interest was in the details of these processes, the micro-decay. This interest eventually took me to places where it could be found in abundance; abandoned places.
Once I witnessed the humbling power of these natural processes working on larger and larger scales, it didn’t take long for my photographic work to expand to the more ‘human’ scale of whole rooms and even to entire structures.
This shift in scale opened up ever more areas of interest and thought. The history of the locations, how people think about the places they dwell in, and the transient nature of even the most substantial structures. Each of these enters my awareness at various times while exploring and shooting abandoned places. My hope is that these are also among the thoughts that enter the minds of viewers when looking at my photographs.
About this Series:
Up until around April of 2007, I was a naysayer about HDR imagery. Mostly the examples I saw looked cartoonish and (to me) quite ugly. But browsing around flickr, I began to encounter more and more examples of stunning images that were HDR.
This lead me to experiment with the technique, and I have since reversed my opinion. I’m now a huge proponent of HDR, both as a way to simply capture detail that would otherwise escape a single exposure, and also to push the boundaries of what is possible artistically using a camera.
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