J.L. Rodman

"The focus of my work is to present to the viewer as accurately as possible what I felt at the moment of capture."

John Rodman is fascinated by landscapes, both rural and urban. He shoots almost exclusively in black and white, having found that this medium affords a more timeless and dramatic presentation. Most importantly, he believes that the absence of color facilitates the emergence of other compositional elements, including quality of light, tonality, texture, form, and pattern.

Rodman shoots medium-format and then converts the digital image to black and white. He prints his photos utilizing carbon-based pigment inks. This results in greater shadow and highlight detail, more separation between elements in the photo, and more dimensionality. He prints on matte and semi-gloss papers, and the photo content dictates which paper finish will most fully realize his vision.

John Rodman is self-taught. Once he became seriously interested in fine art photography, he participated in several landscape photography workshops with well-known photographers, including Bruce Barnbaum, Jay Dusard, Jack Dykinga, Craig Blacklock, and Tom Till. He later worked as Craig Blacklock's assistant on a winter landscape photography workshop on the North Shore of Lake Superior.