January 2014
Artist’s Statement
My training and livelihood for the past 36 years has been in commercial photography and as part of that I have photographed many different subjects and styles. My personal work leans heavily to portraiture, and I find that subject to be the most satisfying for me as a photographer. I find it also helps define me as a Southerner because, though not in all cases, for the most part I know my subjects personally and they are neighbors and relatives in my rural farming community of Grays Chapel, North Carolina. I try to shoot them un-posed in their own surroundings with an effort to communicate to the viewer something about who they are and what they do. My family has been in Grays Chapel since the 18th century. Traditionally a farming community, it is in the middle of a couple of decades of change into a semi-suburban bedroom community. Some of the old still exists, and I try to document those people that still live more traditional lives. But the new is also moving in, so I see it necessary to look at that as well, and how the two come together.
Biography
I’m a commercial photographer based in Greensboro, North Carolina, with over 35 years of experience shooting professional advertising and editorial images.
Although my photography business is based out of Greensboro, I am a Randolph County native and live on my family’s 150-acre beef cattle farm on Routh Road in Grays Chapel. A lot of my personal and art photography is done near my home, featuring family, friends, neighbors and local scenes. I seek to document the rural society and landscape of my community before a lot of the local traditions are lost by urban encroachment. I grew up as the son of a dairy farmer/teacher and worked on the dairy until I left for UNC and a degree in Cultural Anthropology and then Photography at Randolph Community College. My wife and I have two sons (and a daughter-in-law) and we still work the farm, raising cattle and chickens, along with an extensive vegetable garden.
http://danrouth.com/
