Roman Loranc brings an Old
World romanticism to his black & white photography
of the California landscape. Born in Poland, Roman
emigrated to the US in 1982, eventually settling
in the Great Central Valley of California. He
now brings his camera and conscious to bear on
remnant landscapes and ecosystems so easily forgotten
in today's fast paced world. His work evokes the
passion and serenity of the subject matter, an
eloquent fusion of environmental ethic and artistic
technique.
"I grew up in a mountainous
region of Poland and spent many rapt hours
exploring pristine trout streams and meadow
marshlands before they were irrevocably
altered by the damming and channelization
that accompanied postwar Polish industrialism.
Even though the Central Valley is a dramatically
different landscape, my wanderings in
remnants of Central Valley woodlands and
wetlands are often, ironically, an effort
to recover some of the purity and rapture
of those early childhood experiences in
my home region.
The Valley Oak woodlands and freshwater
marshes of California's interior, even
in their fragmented and desecrated islands,
invite patience and solicitude. Unlike
the mountains or the coast, the Valley
is a "forgiving" landscape whose
subtle textures of oak drape and tule
mound. cottonwood glitter and willow blur--stroke
the heart and evoke tenderness. At their
best, Central Valley land- and waterscapes
are nature at its most eloquent:
hieroglyph, thicket of the imagination and
psyche, Thoreau's santum sanctorum, as much
within as without, as much sacred as hungry,
always the dimension into which human beings
reach for self-knowledge, wisdom and humility.
The Central Valley I see is underappreciated
and besieged, but beautiful nonetheless and
still resilient and powerful enough to heal
and to inspire healing."
Roman Loranc was born in Bielsko-Biala, Poland
in 1956 and emigrated to the United States
in 1982. Moving to California in 1984 rekindled
his feeling for landscape photography. Roman
now devotes 100% of his energy to his art.
Since settling in California's Great Central
Valley, Loranc has increasingly turned to
subjects in his backyard: the delicate wetlands
shadowing the Pacific Flyway, the stirring
and primeval contours of the Diablo Range,
and the sinuous and radiant surfaces of once
mighty Central Valley rivers.
While he does not shun engagement in regional
issues and documentation of the undoing as
well as the restoring of California wild lands,
Loranc's work marks a return to landscape
photography as intimate encounter with land
and psyche. His work has been exhibited in
many public and private galleries and recently
was featured in the best-selling anthology,
Highway 99: A Literary Journey Through California's
Great Central Valley and Picturing the Central
Valley (Heyday Books)
