Grapes of Wrath romanloranc.com
Roman Loranc is one of the most interesting black and white photographers. His work is primarily focused on landscape, and it displays a remarkable sense of light, perspective, and composition. The representation of vastness and bareness in his images conveys peace, as well as a subtle melancholy; but most of all, this work is conditioned by the artist’s relationship to the land. The Polish-born photographer is based in California, and it is the Central Valley that has caught his attention in particular. As he told David Best of Black and White Magazine, “[i]t was in here in the remnants of Central Valley wetlands that I understood nature’s dependence upon people as partners in preservation, and I hope the range of emotions I have discovered there, in myself, touch those who see my photographs.”
Oaks and Snag romanloranc.com
Tule Raft romanloranc.com
Bare Trees by the River romanloranc.com
Roman Loranc has also photographed churches in Poland and Lithuania. But the spirituality that runs through these pictures is not different from the way he portrays nature. As he puts it, the ancient churches of his homeland “are holy spaces where millions of people have prayed for hundreds of years. They are places of great humility, and remind us how brief our lives are. I feel the same way when I’m photographing ancient groves of native oaks in California.” This work also aims to raise awareness with regard to the preservation of the Central Valley rivers and wetlands, as he and his wife, the poet Lillian Vallee, told KQED Spark in the following video; the latter includes a presentation of the photographer at work.
As Lillian Vallee holds, this particular set of pictures is “a call to work, to healing, to active participation in a mercifully forgiving landscape.” It seems to me that this argument is an eloquent interpretation of the relationship between landscape and its representation in the work of Roman Loranc, as well as of the wider appeal of his images.
Road to Home romanloranc.com
Cumulus Clouds romanloranc.com
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