October 18, 2003 - February 15, 2004

Like lost stills from a personal landscape, the photographs of Rocky Schenck hint at stories set in a surreal, shadowy territory backlit with moments of pure beauty. Visitors to the Wittliff Gallery exhibit will find Schenck’s images endlessly evocative, though he himself asserts, “My approach is rather simple: I record on film what I see and what I feel as I travel through life. Although my photographs have been taken all over the world, there is a consistency to the imagery due to the manipulation of both the film’s negative and of the print’s surface. I consider my images to be illustrations of my conscious (and perhaps subconscious) dreams, emotions, and longings. Many of the images explore positive and negative realities that inhabit dreamlike settings . . . they are usually not premeditated or contrived. . . . I simply take my camera with me wherever I go and try to remain open to whatever life shoves . . . or gently places . . . in front of me. When I’m shooting, I look for images that tell a story, or provide some element of a dramatic narrative. Of course, sometimes it’s a matter of being swept away by the haunting beauty of nature, which provides constant inspiration and solace. And I guess I’m a little bit of a dreamer, so I like to create fantasy worlds in some of my photos. . . . Places where I would like to escape and get lost in my imagination. I’ve got a healthy respect for fantasy, but at the same time reality isn’t such a bad thing, either.” born in Austin and raised in Dripping Springs, native Texan Rocky Schenck now lives in Los Angeles where he is also a filmmaker. Texas State’s Wittliff Gallery of Southwestern & Mexican Photography has been acquiring Schenck photographs since 1999 and now holds the major collection of his work, over 130 prints. The latest book in the Wittliff Gallery Series with UT Press, Rocky Schenck: Photographs, is the first monograph on Schenck’s photography. It includes 84 plates, an introduction by Special Collections Curator Connie Todd, and a foreword by John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil—and an enthusiastic Schenck collector. Series editor, Bill Wittliff / Volume editor, Connie Todd. Wittliff Gallery books can be purchased through major booksellers.

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