2016 Rowles FineArt Photography Located in the historic Iowa train town of Boone, Iowa - named after it's explorer Nathan Boone, Son of the legendary Daniel Boone. To Contact Rowles FineArt Photography: Gerald (Jerry) Rowles 2126 Marshall St. Boone, IA 50036 Phone: 515-205-9355 E-mail GRFP Please Also Visit 1979 THE PASSION OF PHOTOGRAPHY In the course of my working life I have been gifted with opportunities to live in many different parts of the United States. I love Colorado's Mountains, Arizona's Deserts/Canyons, Texas' Coasts and the Desert Northwest in general. However, earning a living that would support me and my photography in those iconic areas of my affection has always seemed a bridge too far. It was while I was attending ASU that my interest in photography began, as an escape from the tedium and tension of classes, study, and attaining a GPA good enough for grad school admittance. Thus began my longest life period of singular interest and parallel un-career devotion/passion. In more than thirty-five years I have seen that interest grow and mature; the last seventeen as an evolving professional earning a modest living as a photographic artist. Returning to life in Iowa became the object of my photographic affections. And Iowa has loved me back like no iconic location would. My personal style of photography is not so much a product-of or equivalent-to famed photographers that are household names. However, Ansel Adams was the first photographic icon that influenced my early ventures into the world of black and white film photography with the zone system, and the attendant first magic of the darkroom developer tray. That elusive magic has been revisited with the digital revolution and the PC 'lightroom', beginning with the 5 mpx Nikon E-5000 and progressing through several generations of DSLRs culminating at this writing with the 12 mpx Nikon D700 and the 24 mpx Nikon D3X. The results of this technological progression are incorporated in the images displayed in my web pages. The greatest sources of inspiration / encouragement for me come from the world of paint and canvas. Grant Wood, Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Norman Rockwell, and Andrew Wyeth celebrated regional landscapes and nature's gifts with realism and impression, vivid color, insightful / inspired composition, and most importantly - lighting. My Midwest roots share the visions of Grant Wood and Andrew Wyeth. My painterly leanings are satisfied most often in Claude Monet and his love of color and flora. The compositions of Paul Cezanne inspire some of my still life work. Grant Wood lovingly viewed the same Iowa I do, but his was with an abstract eye for its rolling croplands and small towns - and a more literal eye for its people. Returning to Iowa after spending much of my adult life living in the west and southwest, I also rediscovered the notion that Iowa is about the people as much as it is the topography. My growing-up history, which took place in the fifties, included the joyful viewing of Norman Rockwell's illustrations in the Saturday Evening Post. Rockwell's buoyant devotion to the average American and ideals of that era fits my experiences and lives on in my memories. As a professional photographic artist pursuing my passion I have experienced the rewards of having hundreds of my photos published in glossy local interest magazines, architectural projects, wall hangings, as well as receiving thousands of daily visitors to my websites. I hope to encourage other photographers to express their personal, artful view of their neck of the woods without feeling compelled to incessantly travel to exotic or iconic destinations. In part, it's my personal goal to contribute what I can to renewing an upbeat pride in small places and modest folks that once characterized the American art scene. Flyover Country - it's more than that. "When I go to farms or little towns, I am always surprised at the discontent I find. And New York, too often, has looked across the sea toward Europe. And all of us who turn our eyes away from what we have are missing life." - Norman Rockwell Gerald (Jerry) Rowles PhD Early Work in Black & White [with some revisions]