Featured Artist Rochelle Berman

Photographer Rochelle Berman offers a selection of Dreamscape Portraits, focused on the inner beauty and strength of women. Visit her website to see more.

 

 

Being a fine art photographer allows me to capture the immense beauty of life through my camera lens and then to freely transform it; to perform a metamorphosis into an even more magical vision.

 

 

I was raised in New York, a city with unlimited artistic resources. Every week I would eagerly bicycle across the Brooklyn Bridge to incredible places like MOMA, The MET and so many wonderful galleries. I immersed myself in all elements of fine art. I concentrated on drawing, writing and poetry throughout my elementary and high school years. But it was in college where I combined my fine arts background with photography.

 

 

My greatest inspiration came from an accomplished photographer and writer, Bill Jay. He was my professor at Arizona State University and taught the history of photography. He pushed me beyond my limits and the limits of each medium. As a result, instead of simply documenting places and people, I began to capture the creative aura of what I saw in my mind. This allows me to bring my unique images to life.

 

 

I spent hours in my personal darkroom experimenting with concepts I studied from some of the early fine art photographers, like Moholy-Nagy, Man Ray and Paul Strand to name a few.

 

 

I experimented in so many ways—multiple exposures, photo montages, the effects of different exposures, dodging and burning, sandwiching negatives to create double exposures—all within the darkroom. I loved the time I spent advancing these skills. That knowledge helps me today create similar effects in Photoshop. As technology changed, I was one of the first to convert to digital.

 

 

As I traveled the world, I found inspiration at every turn. I sought out back streets, canals and other less-traveled places in wonderful cities in Italy such as Venice and Portofino. I also could not resist the enchanting landscapes throughout Asia such as Vietnam ‘s Ha Long Bay and Japan’s gorgeous gardens and temples.

 

 

During COVID, my art kept me sane. It gave me joy as I endured seclusion. I revisited my journeys through the many photographs of places and people I had captured. I was inspired as I created and combined the best into dreamlike pieces of art that entice my audience.

 

 

As I prepared the Dreamscape Portraits series, I wanted to showcase beautiful, strong women. I want to expose their inner beauty, strength and struggles. Their tranquility is enriched with the majestic beauty of the natural environment. My own daughter, who posed for Temptation and Dreamer, inspired some of my first works.

 

 

I believe we are all powerful and spiritual women, capable beyond our perceived limits. If we constrain ourselves by the roles we are subjected to, we fail at life.

 

 

However, when we go deep inside, we realize it’s okay to be your real self, your greater self, even if you are not in the majority. We can be anything we aspire to become. Just believe it so. I want to inspire the very best in each of us through my art.

 

Artist Rochelle Berman invites you to follow her on Instagram and to visit her shopping site.

 

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