Roman Loranc — Yearning for Redemption

A Polish-born photographer now living in Modesto, Roman Loranc has taken as a prime subject his adopted Central Valley landscape, about which Ansel Adams griped after a frustrating trip in search of photographs, “It might be rich, but it ain’t attractive.” In two decades of photographing within an hour’s drive of home, Loranc has proven Adams spectacularly wrong, and in the process become one of the most successful landscape photographers on the contemporary scene.

In addition to his work in the Central Valley, Loranc (pronounced Lawrence) is known for evocative photographs exploring his ancestral roots in Poland and Lithuania, to which he frequently returns on photographic forays. “I’m fascinated by the ancient churches of my homeland,” he says. “These are holy spaces where millions of people have prayed for hundreds of years. They are places of great humility, and remind us how brief our lives are.”

“I feel the same way when I’m photographing ancient groves of native oaks in California. I was unconscious of this when I began, but upon reflection, I think the oaks are just as sacred as the old cathedrals of Europe. They are sacred in that they have survived for so many years.”

Though Loranc is best known for his work in the Central Valley and Eastern Europe, his photographic aesthetic and technique are definitely in the West Coast tradition exemplified by Ansel Adams. Loranc works with a 4x5 view camera, and meticulously crafts his toned silver prints in a traditional darkroom. And like Adams, Loranc addresses our relationship to the land by expressing the land’s beauty and restorative powers rather than documenting man’s use and frequent abuse of the land. “The Central Valley I see is under appreciated and besieged,” Loranc has commented, “but it is beautiful nonetheless and still resilient and powerful enough to heal and to inspire healing.”

Loranc’s work is represented by numerous galleries across the U.S. He has been featured in B&W and View Camera magazines, and his critically-praised 2003 book, Two-Hearted Oak, quickly sold out. In 2006, KQED-TV highlighted Roman working in the field and the darkroom in an episode of its arts program, Spark.

For more about Roman Loranc and his work, visit www.romanloranc.com.