Loft Artists Association
Stamford, CT
http://www.loftartists.com/
Twitter: @LoftArtists | Facebook: /Loftartists

Newspace Center for Photography| Portland, OR
 http://newspacephoto.org
Instagram: @newspacephoto | Facebook: /NewspacePhoto 

 

Rodney Durso | New York, NY
526 W. 26th Street
Studio 503
 http://www.rodney-durso.com
Instagram: @rodneydurso | Facebook: /rodneydursostudio

 

                     Rodney chatting with a                                      The grand hall at Parallax                                        visitor at Parallax Art Fair                                   
                                  
After sending work overseas to London earlier this fall for the exhibition "Works on Paper" at Brick Lane Gallery, Rodney had the pleasure of making his way over to London himself for the Parallax Art Fair on October 22nd and 23rd. Rodney was one of over 200 makers there showcasing their creative works. This provided an opportunity to connect with an international audience, as he mingled with hundreds of art patrons from all over the globe during the weekend. 

 Brick Lane Gallery | London, EN
 http://www.thebricklanegallery.com/

Parallax Art Fair | London, EN
http://www.parallaxaf.co/

 

          

                                       
                                                                  
Bradley Skaggs is an architect, designer, and photographer as well as co-founder and Creative Director of Skaggs Creative, a New York City based branding agency. Skaggs studied architecture in college, and after receiving his degree, moved to Germany where he landed his first job in architecture. Skaggs says he is a “modernist at heart”, which led him to Europe to see all the work he had studied in school. Because architecture was a huge passion of his in the beginning of his career, it's usually a theme he tends to explore within his other creative areas of work.  After several years of living, traveling, and working in Europe, Skaggs made the move to San Francisco, where he co-founded his company, Skaggs Creative, with his wife, Jonina.

       
         Nasir al-Mulk Mosque, 1888, Shiraz, Iran

Photography has always been a passion of his--he built his own darkroom in the basement of his Dad's office in high school--but architecture school would prove to be all consuming. He put the camera away for several years before picking it back up again when he moved to Europe. Buildings have always been one of his favorite things to photograph, but he finds that travel photography to be equally fascinating. He says he mostly shoots for himself and it's typically "run and gun" shooting, but that he’s always thinking about how he would summarize a place in just 10 photographs. He keeps this in mind while he travels.

Skaggs describes himself as a builder and one fascinated with light, stating that “architecture is about light anyhow, and that’s why photography and architecture go so well together.” His love of architectural and travel photography has led him to pursue product photography in his creative professional practice, which like architecture is all about light and how it is sculpted. “I wouldn’t say that it is sculpture per se, but it is a controlled environment where you are trying to bring parts of an object to life by adding depth, drama and the expression of material by sculpting light. Light has always been fascinating to me.”

       
          Taj-al-Mulk Mosque, North Dome, built 1088. 4 sides, to 8, to 16 to the dome, Esfahan, Iran

Skaggs usually takes two to three trips a year – where he gathers luscious, vibrant photographs of unfamiliar environments. A few of his past explorations have included following the work of renowned self-taught architect, Tado Ando, in Japan as well as documenting the architecture of Alvar Aalto in Finland. And then there is Iran--which Skaggs states is “just an incredible place to see.” He describes the country as very diverse, the food "amazing", and the mosques as “mind blowing” for the fact that they were built as far back as the 10th century and still standing today. “A few of the domes are nearly perfect half spheres-–how could they construct it so perfect, and how have they managed to survive for so long?” Some were built 600 years before Sir Christopher Wren's St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Skaggs says that part of his passion for photographing architecture of antiquity is that he is trying to document his small portion of it before it's destroyed. "You look at the destruction of various sites in Syria, for example, or the earthquake in Tibet and you realize that these works are precious."

        
          Imam Mosque entrance, 1629, Esfahan, Iran

“In Iran, the level of craftmanship is extraordinary. The tile is not only hand-made, hand-cut and hand-painted but also it has to fit into these incredibly complex geometries that are also symmetric. The mathematics and the engineering--its incredible.” Coming from our knowledge of churches in the West, he was also fascinated by how minimal the interior of the mosques are. “There’s really nothing to them other than the space--not like a Western church where its glorified with statues and relics of saints. They are just simple spaces meant for prayer.”

Rather than looking at these buildings as religious symbols, Skaggs is simply fascinated with the stunning architecture of them. He says that he finds his own personal spirituality in "the world at large and the people you come across when you travel."