Dakin Roy
Landscape photography is among the most challenging tests for a photographer: the risk of disappointment that it does not reflect the majestic beauty of nature is always high. However, photographer Dakin Roy is a spontaneous master of the genre.
Dakin’s eye and lens approach the landscape with delicacy and respect. His shots reveal attention to detail and patience. The photographic landscapes that he selected for the magazine are never sensationalistic. They capture the most intimate soul of nature, exuding calm and introspection.
Some of Dakin’s landscapes appear almost abstract, focusing on natural textures and forms. The photographer dwells on the transformations of flora and fauna, carefully choosing the scenarios in which the elements (earth, water, and sky) collide.
Favourite landscapes for his photography include seascapes, particularly the shorelines of Cape Cod. A tongue of land that plunges into the Atlantic Ocean, leaving the space for vegetation, wind, and saltiness. Observing some of his shots taken in that multifaceted marine, you can clearly perceive what inspires the artist. There are evident sounds and more distant ones, like echoes of humans, animals, and nature: the breeze of the bay, the cry of seagulls, the click-clack of crabs on the rocks, and children laughing over the dunes, cites the photographer. Inspired by the sounds and impressions of the landscapes he visits, Dakin creates evocative and synaesthetic images. We can find photographs of desert-like dunes moved by the wind, alien-shaped water hyacinths, or suggestive twilights suspended between water and sky.
Dakin’s technique also fits the elements of the landscape. His photography, realized with a Nikon D600 DSL camera and a Nikon 28-70mm 2.8 lens, is purely observational. It requires time and control, experimenting with different points of view, framing and cropping techniques. He also acts in the studio through careful editing. His works are the sum of what he viewed and what he felt.
Dakin’s photography is also similar to the Impressionist technique: a high degree of landscape observation and study of atmospheric agents. Different images can be obtained, depending on the day conditions, even the hour. In addition, the skillful sense of the object, as if they were still lifes and not landscape photography, brings him close to the shots of the great Edward Weston.
Like Weston, Dakin Roy does not only take landscape photos but has also experimented with other subjects in his career. Educated in photography at Pratt Institute of New York and the Academy of Art in San Francisco, he has exhibited in solo and group shows around the U.S, mainly in New York. Dakin is also known as a teacher, having taught courses in New York related to digital photography and B/W techniques. A choice that may seem unusual when looking at his colourful photographs, but that makes us understand his primary photographic interest in vision in all its forms.
Dakin Roy is the Gold Artist of the ArtAscent Landscapes call for artists. To see the full body of work and profile, get a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Landscapes issue.
