“Eloquent Stone”

Mr. Rhames is a digital photographer who prints his own images using archival pigment inks on Fine Art archival paper.  His photography includes portraiture, ‘scapes, nature, commercial and product imagery and weddings.  The prints he displays in this exhibit are both monochrome and color.  

The subject matter is from a larger body of work and is a collection of images capturing the distinctive beauty of medieval Irish – Norman architecture of some of Ireland’s lesser known historical sites.

In Rhames’ description of his exhibit, he states “While most people see these old Medieval ruins as just piles of rocks, I am irresistibly drawn to the eloquent poem of history that they whisper to me.  Most often, I am completely alone with these stone edifices and, while photographing them from every conceivably interesting angle, able to hear their whisperings and envision the stories they conjure in my more than willing imagination.”

He adds, “The finished product of my photography seems to inevitably result in what those sites felt like to me more than what they looked like in the light of forensic accuracy.  Many times, the finished product of my photography of these tangible historical markers seems to be “dark” in an emotional sense.  I often wonder if that result is an expression of my knowledge that history has not been kind to my Irish ancestors.  Particularly that history imposed upon them by my father’s Anglo-Irish ancestors.”

Mr. Rhames will present a discussion of his photography and techniques on Friday January 17th, at 7 PM at The Spectrum Gallery’s “Friday Photography Live”.

Mr. Rhames was first introduced to serious photography as a “rookie” police officer with the City of Fresno Police Department, assigned to the Identification Bureau (what is now called CSI), photographing crime scenes and other events requiring photographic evidence.  The assignment was brief, but he learned “the basics”.  Upon retirement, 40 years later, he gravitated to photography as a second career.  He studied and completed the Commercial Photography Course with the New York Institute of Photography, continued his photographic education through intensive selfteaching methods and has been a licensed photographer since 2010.  In successive years Fresno Fair Professional Photography Exhibition, he has been awarded numerous awards in the Professional Category.