Using the time-honored platinum/palladium process, Carolyn Rogers creates photographs that appear painterly and encapsulate a wonderfully contemplative serenity. Capturing the beauty of Paradise Island, Rogers’ images portray isolated palm trees and windswept tropical beaches. It is increasingly rare in modern life to come across moments of true solitude and tranquility—Rogers is not just developing landscape photographs but is providing a commentary on modernity. The rich tonal scale and poetic feel of her platinum/palladium prints evoke late 19th century idyllic landscapes. Both the view and the viewer are displaced from their contemporary setting and may feel timeless yet transitory in another world.
Carolyn Rogers lives and works in Washington, D.C. and has exhibited widely. In addition to this new body of work, the artist has several portfolios of platinum/palladium images that were taken mainly along routes near her home that she frequently walks and runs. These scenes lie at the cusp of nature and artifice, portraying deserted streets in the same manner as majestic trees and waterfronts, bringing them to us afresh.