Randolph H Radke
ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
Living in a New England seaport town made it more accessible to the ever-changing marine environment that surrounded me. There were moments when I was exploring the tidewater environment (hiking, canoeing, boating, sailing, wading and/or fishing) that filled me with a sense of wonder, causing an emotional response that excites and inspires me to try to capture this experience on film.
Learning about this meeting place between land and sea from the local watermen and women who clam, lobster, hunt and fish, has improved my ability to observe, appreciate and be more keenly aware of the simple natural beauty that I otherwise would have overlooked. There is no lack of subject matter to be photographed. This enables me to develop a visual representation of what I see through black and white photography.
I use black and white film because I believe it is the best medium to record my vision of the moment and capture the essence of the mood and light, thus representing how I remembered a particular scene or event. I prefer to use a 35 mm camera because of it’s portability and easy setup, which enables me to quickly respond to the changes brought on by the ebb and flow of the tides, weather and seasons.
INFORMATION ON ARTIST:
Randy Radke was born in New York City and grew up on Riverside Drive in Manhattan. He developed an appreciation for the marine environment while photographing his family and friends along the Hudson River, Long Island Beaches, Coney Island Aquarium and aboard the Brooklyn Charter Fishing Fleet. His interest in photography started out with a Kodak Box Camera he obtained as a gift when he was nine years old. From New York City, he went to Puerto Rico to finish high school.
He traveled extensively throughout Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands taking photographs in between fishing and sailing. While obtaining his Bachelor of Science Degree from Clemson University in South Carolina, he had an opportunity to visit and photograph the Carolina coast. After graduating, he lived near the Great Lakes in Buffalo, NY and Cleveland, OH, and later moved on to Texas where he became very familiar with the Gulf Coast area between Galveston and Brownsville. He sailed extensively on Lake Texoma until his work took him to Germany where he lived for over three and a half years.
He is primarily self-taught and self-directed in photography except for spending a couple of semesters at The Texas Center for Photographic Studies in Dallas, Texas (where his older daughter Zebrina was born). He learns photography from doing, rather than from listening. He was greatly influenced by Ben Breard, owner/director of the Afterimage Gallery, an art gallery that for 30 years has been devoted exclusively to photography. Ben, through his gallery, inspired Randy to be more purposeful and passionate about photography.
He has lived, photographed and traveled throughout Europe (where his youngest daughter Dylana was born in Germany) and was able to visit and photograph many of the European Countries as well as the Soviet Union, Middle East and Africa. He returned to the US and lived for a while in Annapolis, MD where he continued to sail and photograph the Chesapeake Bay. He now resides in the historic seaport town of Newburyport, MA where he is a member of the Newburyport Art Association and the Arthur Griffin Center for Photographic Art in Winchester, MA. Having his own darkroom occasionally makes it possible for him to develop and print his own B & W images in between his busy work schedule. His obsession with marine photography is constantly refreshed with the changing smells, sounds, tides and weather surrounding his New England home.
