Roger Soule was born and raised in the Midwest. From 1973 to 1994, he lived in New England and for the next nine years was a resident of the Finger Lakes region. Recently he returned to the Midwest.
Roger is a self-taught photographer. “My father, a Baptist minister, always had a movie or still camera in his hands, and it seemed the most natural thing in the world to follow his lead. My mother took over the photo chores after his death in 1965 and created a large collection of her own. I started with a Brownie Instamatic as a boy and have taken photographs ever since.”
Roger was commissioned by the Arts of the Southern Finger Lakes in 2002 to create an original work for their Art Just Down the Road Billboard Project. His work has been published in various magazines (including Life in the Finger Lakes), calendars, brochures and tourist books. His art has been exhibited in the Arnot Art Museum, Gmeiner Gallery, Red Newt Winery, Salt of the Earth Gallery and O’Shea’s Books.
“My makeup is a blend of the technical and aesthetic, so it comes as no surprise that photography is the perfect artistic outlet for me. I spent years learning the technical aspects of camera, film, lighting, and composition through reading, trial and error, and perseverance. Creative photography requires a mastery of these elements just as painting requires a mastery of perspective, brushstrokes, and paints; and sculpture requires the understanding of materials, sculpting tools and spatial dimensions.
“Only after the use of these pre-requisite tools, methods and techniques has become second nature can the creativity take over. It starts with ‘seeing’ the world rather than just ‘looking at’ the world, consciously inspecting your environment and unconsciously experiencing an emotional reaction to elements in it.
“Photography allows me to capture a fleeting instant when the elements converge to make ‘magic’ as I think of it. It may appear over the entire sky, as a glorious sunset, or in the space of a dewdrop on a rose petal. The magic is all around, and it is my mission to capture and share it with others in the hope that they too will be inspired to look for the beauty in their corner of the world and realize how important it is to preserve the magic.”
You can find prints of Roger’s work in Watkins Glen at JW Brace Books, Waterfalls of the Finger Lakes Shop, NYStateWine.Com shop and Famous Brands Outlet Store. All of these shops are conveniently located on Franklin Street. Other outlets of his work include Skyland Farms, Route 414, Hector; Red Newt Winery, Tichenor Road, Hector; and Logan Ridge Winery, Ball Diamond Road, Hector.
Roger Soule has thousands of images of the Finger Lakes. Contact him at Soule Photography, 512 South 19th Street, Atchison, KS 66002. His phone number is (913) 367-3407. Visit his website at www.soulephotography.com, or send an e-mail to rosoule@hotmail.com.
