ARTIST'S STATEMENT ROCQUE STEPHEN ERN Born on the East Coast in 1950, Rocque grew up in a heritage of photography. His father, a civil engineer by trade, had a great love of photography and spent much of his free time in his darkroom. When he was eleven, Rocque's fascination with Black & White Photography began as he started helping his Dad in the darkroom and watched the latent images magically appear in the developer tray. Rocque has been in the darkroom ever since. Since that time, Rocque has done many years of photography including newspaper freelance, product work, model portfolios, and wedding photography. Although his commercial work helped to pay the bills, nothing compared to the passion he had created for his Silver Gelatin black and white photography. Having moved to the California Central Coast, Rocque has embraced the techniques and influence of the West Coast style of photography and has since become an award winner photographer. His work has been grounded in the history of these traditional working methods of photography. He has studied with such accomplished Monterey Bay Photographers as John Sexton, Ted Orland, Jan Paul Pietrzak, Patrick Jablonski, Craig Fucile, Gordon Hammer, and Margaret Murray. In his own words "Photography has been such a gift for me in that it has enabled me to slow down and really look at what's around me. When I look through my viewfinder I am able to stop and see all the elements around me. I am then able to create my way of expressing that through my image. For me photography is a ever changing evolution that constantly pushes me to see where the next turn will take me." All images were photographed using a medium format 6x7 camera.~Graflex XL~Zeiss & Schneider lens. This camera choice allows Rocque to produce very high resolution images that capture minute details with excellent definition. All films used are ISO 125 and slower. His current choice in film is Ilford FP4 and Agfa APX Pro 100 and for color Fuji Velvia. In the darkroom he uses a Beseler 45 enlarger with a Dichro color head for contrast control. All Nikon enlarger lens. B&W Papers used are Segull Fiber VC and Ilford Fiber VC. All color printing is done on a Epson 2200 using archival pigments. All B&W images are selenium toned and dry mounted on 100% rag museum board.Color images are mounted on buffered Cresent Board.