Meet Ted Rigoni
A Journey of Discovery
My art photography is a weave of themes that explore our shared Western American Landscape.
They are usually devoid of photojournalism or short story; they are visual novellas. Thematically I enjoy capturing the thunder of rail freighters rumbling under slanty desert sunsets and dim moonlight. I'm mesmerized by the bits of metal that man abandons, pieces that oxidize and form new art for me to capture and share. The cool greens that saturate our rainforests in summer and the chill starlight playing the Navajo Sandstones of the Arizona Strip provide a reassuring link to nature's patterns and textures. I feel the loneliness of our cities' back alleys and yet revel in the romance of distant streetlights playing on the flinty spaces of buildings facing away.
As an artist working within the photography medium, I strive to create images that lift latent thoughts from the recesses of our memories.
If you were to review my high school yearbook, I can guarantee that you would not find a "most likely to succeed as an artist" associated with my obligatory high school portrait.
Like many artists who came to the arts from other careers, my route has been circuitous. There have been long stops in the engineering field and work as an active sports photographer, where I developed a deep sense of timing and an understanding of the emotions associated while capturing the joy of winning and the agony of defeat. Those long hours of sports shooting led to a deeper calling for self-expression, and through additional formal and informal studies, I decided to pursue art photography and sports.
Today I have been blessed to share my work in exhibits, galleries, and online shows with collectors and visitors who tell me the work resonates with them as though it has been lifted from the back channels of their own memories. It's gratifying to know that my visual expressions elicit a response in people, responses that are often quite personal for them and me.
“A Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art.”
— Ambrose Bierce