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VIZ CITY BLOG: Audio, photos, transcripts & more by Terry Way and Sandy Brown Jensen.Airs every other Wednesday during Morning Edition and Here & Now.

Ron Rogers at the Sisters Library

Ron Rogers is a Sisters, Oregon, photographer who has a show at the Sisters Library during the month of May 2018.
Sandy Brown Jensen

Ron Rogers, “Spring Snow in Sisters, Oregon,” at the Deschutes Library Community Room in Sisters, Oregon
 
Exhibition Dates: May 1—May 29
Viz City was privileged to interview photographer Ron Rogers on Tuesday, May 8, 2018 for a broadcast date of Wednesday, May 16, 2018
 


 You’re listening to Viz City, KLCC’s Arts Review program.  As Oregon spring sunshine heats up, a great place to cool off on the East side of the KLCC listening area is at the Deschutes Public Library in Sisters where local photographer Ron Rogers is showing a dream-like series of photos called“Spring Snow in Sisters.”

"Ponderosa Pine" from Ron Rogers's "Spring Snow in Sisters" Series
Credit Ron Rogers
"Ponderosa Pine" from Ron Rogers's "Spring Snow in Sisters" Series

 
"I got started actually about four years ago and, uh, the reason was um I got into using a DSLR because I didn’t want to be one of those people on Facebook that posted blurry pictures that you couldn’t tell what the subject matter was. I wanted my friends to see what I was looking at and seeing come of the beauty of the world that I was experiencing."
 
 Ron moved to Sisters from a very urban life in California and fell in love with the beauties of the Sisters area.
 
"Some of the natural subjects that I enjoy photographing…well, there is a lot of splendor, a lot of epic splendor around, and there are a lot of people who capture that epic splendor, but I think that just sometimes going out and looking at the wee little wildflowers down in the sand and trying to figure out what those little guys are and capturing and presenting those in a way that I love. 
 
"I love walking out at the Metolius—the water out there is spectacular, so I capture that—try to find the birds in the bushes while everybody else is looking at the waterfall."
 
Ron’s photographs are a series of dreamy snowscapes. It is part of an exhibition with the Sisters Area Photography Club that takes up the the whole Community Room in the Sisters Library with one area dedicated to five of his unusual images.
 
"It was the second day of Spring—we got six inches of snow in 18 hours, and it was just spectacular snow for the year."

"Spring Morning" is from Ron Rogers's "Spring Snow in Sisters" Series, now showing through May 2018 at the Sisters Library
Credit Ron Rogers
"Spring Morning" is from Ron Rogers's "Spring Snow in Sisters" Series, now showing through May 2018 at the Sisters Library

What makes Ron’s photographs so unusual is that the focus is not just a point but appears to run in a diagonal through the image with the edges falling off into a soft and evocative blur.
 
"On these images, when I went out into the forest to take pictures of them, I used a specific lens—it’s called a Lensbaby lens, and it has a very vintage sort of feel where it gets soft or falls off. This Lensbaby lens that I used happens to take slices or put a slice of focus wherever you bend the lens around to see it.
 
The effect Ron achieves is a vision of snow as you might remember it from childhood. But you can see them for yourself at the Deschutes Public Library, which is located at 110 N Cedar St. Just turn north at the giant bronze horse sculpture on Main St. It is closed Sunday and Monday.
 
Learn more and see images of Ron Rogers and his magical work at the Viz City blog on KLCC.org. 
Viz City is co-produced by Terry Way and Sandy Brown Jensen.
 
 
 
 

Terry Way has been hosting Viz City, KLCC's visual arts review program, since 2000. Terry hosts the show with Sandy Brown Jensen.