It is easy to describe Paul Roark as one of the country’s most captivating photographers, especially after seeing pieces from his latest exhibit.
But Roark has never had difficulty cementing his place on the photographic landscape. With decades of experience and a wealth of technical expertise, he is a timely and keen artist, with an amazing eye for contradictions in nature and architecture. Roark’s latest photo series, Between Light and Dark, demonstrates not just his marvelous skill for composition and setting but his unwavering fixation on technical perfection.
Roark’s latest photos include a shot of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, where he visited on vacation a while ago.
“I was very close to it, which is why it has that exaggerated perspective,” he said. “It is fairly bright so it took multiple shots to get it right. I was actually able to do that hand-held. … I’ve never seen anything quite like that perspective.”
Modern optics and cameras have progressed in ways that make photos like the tower shot possible in a way they haven’t been in previous years, Roark explained.
To discuss his personal art with Roark is to discuss the technicalities that he sees in each piece. Whereas the layman sees a stunning night sky wrapping around a virginal white tree, Roark sees tight precision points involving chemical formulations and almost algebraic calculations.
For printing the photograph, Roark used Arches watercolor paper. Arches is a specialty paper made with long cotton fibers and produced on a cylinder mold. The result is a paper with a uniform grain, with the fibers distributed evenly. The white lasts much longer than in regular photographic paper as well.
“Inkjet paper is actually a coated paper, as is traditional photographic paper,” Roark said. “In other words, it has different layers for different purposes. Some conservation types believe that all coating or laminating ultimately crack and/or peel apart because of the differential expansion and contraction.”
The image that is going to last the longest is one that is composed of predominantly carbon pigments and placed on a non-laminate material, such as Arches paper, Roark said. He also favors the material because it produces the best kinds of black compared to other watercolor papers.
To get that deep and perfect black, Roark also uses not one but two matte black positions in the printing process. Most printers can’t do that with the standard original equipment manufacturer cartridge. It requires special software components including a Raster Image Processor. When printed, Roark frames them “floating” and with the deckle edge showing, which gives the image a beautiful handmade quality.
“That’s another situation that most inkjet printers shouldn’t deal with,” he explained. “Because you actually have to iron the deckle edge and make sure it’s trimmed appropriately because if it sticks up, it will hit the head and crash the head of an inkjet printer.”
While some of those more advanced techniques aren’t recommended for amateurs, it’s easy to learn from Roark’s slow and skilled manner for spotting the perfect composition and image. He also swears by the Sony AR-7 II, a 42 megapixel camera. But he doesn’t use Sony lenses; instead he opts for Leica M glass lenses.
“My typical M.O. in shooting is that I try to use F-8 [aperture stop], which is usually the sharpest,” he said. “If you close down more than that you start to get serious fuzziness from diffraction.”
But that aperture isn’t ideal for great depth of field, so Roark does dual or multiple focus points. He focuses on the foreground, shoots the picture, and immediately rotates the focus to the infinity stop point and takes another picture. This is a tricky procedure that must be precise in order to produce a solid image, and Roark has managed to master it hand-held, a rare feat even for seasoned photographers.
Then, he takes the two-shot images and merges them together in Photoshop, like taking two slices of bread together to make a sandwich.
“I’m not dealing with trying to get depth of field via a tiny aperture,” Roark said. “I get it by sandwiching layers of different focus points. It’s one of the things you can do to keep everything sharp.”
While most of the general public that views his work may not always get to see every part of his detailed process, it’s the overall emotional impact of each piece that leaves a lasting impression. Having a chance to show in a museum such as the Elverhoj (which has featured his work previously) is an important occasion for the photographer.
“It is really a community museum,” Roark said. “I think very highly of it, and it’s a pleasure to be back.”
Arts and Lifestyle Writer Rebecca Rose is a study in dark contrasts.
Contact her at rrose@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 14-21, 2019.