Jim Rolon
I have been photographing for more than twenty years. My personal perspective, I believe, is based on a tradition of story telling. Most of my photographs are shot on location as environments simply because it is more interesting and dynamic to me. Having photographed many different types of people. I am always comfortable and decisive on the set.
For all of my career, my client list has consisted of a variety of clients in Australia and overseas including multinational advertising agencies, graphic design agencies, magazines, and record companies. There have also been a number of commissioned exhibitions which have served as a means of promotion for my clients. I have photographed two commissioned books. The most recent, a book about the effects of drug taking on families, commissioned by the Commonwealth Department Of Health & Ageing and edited by Moya Sayer-Jones, is titled "In My Life". The book contains 38 photographs. It was released in June, 2006. My work has appeared in various annuals, won among others a Silver Lion at the Cannes Advertising Awards, and has appeared in the Australian Award book. One of my portraits has been "Commended" at the 2005 Olive Cotton Award for photographic portraiture. I’ve been a finalist in the 2007 Australian National Photographic Portrait Prize.
Currently, I am casting and shooting a major exhibition, with the composer Andrew Ford, for the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre (in Liverpool NSW) which is being funded by the NSW Ministry for the Arts. This exhibition is scheduled to open this year. In October, 2007, I was commissioned by Castrol Oil/Memac Ogivy Dubai to shoot 8 international ads on location on the border of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Also this year, I have photographed the comedian Paul McDermott for ABC Television, the actor Mirriam Margolyes, and the Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe. In 2005, I completed an exhibition of teenagers entitled "Images of Young People", which toured the regional galleries of NSW. This was commissioned by Burnside, a Non Government Organisation.
As a portrait photographer based in Sydney Australia, I am very curious about, and interested in, the way people live their lives. It is my intention that my pictures are insightful. But I enjoy perceiving and portraying people in a sympathetic manner.
These people are a part of the enormous mass of lives that we hardly notice as we pass them every day, but who affect out lives greatly, directly or indirectly. Yet the interesting parts are what I want to show. At the same time it is important to find the spirit or aspect of that person in the moment since, in stills, the moment is all we have. Often, I enjoy including a super real or surrealistic viewpoint. And I enjoy drama . I almost always use only what I have around me to create my photographs.
We are all so different and, yet, we are all the same.
After graduating from Marlboro College, in Marlboro Vermont, with a B.A. in American Literature, I worked as a portrait photographer in the New York City area, and worked as an assistant for five years for William Coupon (celebrity portrait & editorial photographer), and George Holz (fashion & celebrity photographer), both great photographers. I also began my shooting career in New York. During that time, I would travel around the American West in search of pictures. I would walk the streets of New York City with a polaroid camera , taking pictures of anything and anyone, to develop my composition and my point of view. I continue this tradition with my digital Nikon.
Now, as an American Australian, I do pretty much the same with my eyes. Between assignments, I wonder what my next project should be. I always have a portrait to take. It is interesting and always exciting for me. Taking photographs has an energy I never grow tired of. It’s what I do.