Artist Statement

Throughout most of my creative journey, I refused to accept photography as an art. In those early years, photography was a didactic experience; a series of lessons I learned at the onset and built upon through experience. I trained in my craft with an emphasis on the technical side of photography—exposure, composition, lighting—and was taught that mastering those rules brought expertise. Over time, I came to realize that breaking those rules allowed me to make images that felt a little bit different—more creative, more unique, pictures that began to stand out from the rest.

That worked well for me as a photojournalist. News photographers don’t have a lot of creative options when photographing car crashes, political protests or basketball games. Over time, one image begins to look the same as the one before. I became bored with my work and a prisoner to the rules. I was simply capturing what was in front of me—albeit somewhat creatively—in a manner more aligned with straight photography than with art.

But as I evolved as a photographer, something changed. I felt a yearning. My creative soul declared its intent to burst through the boundaries I had set for it, begging me to make images not from my mind, but from my heart, from my spirit, from my core.

And so began my quest to reinvent myself creatively—a multiyear journey during which I finally discovered the art in photography. Using as my guide the creative vision and shoot-it-as-it’s-happening techniques I honed in photojournalism, I began to focus on fashion- and body-inspired portraiture. The act of capturing images became my tool, not my crutch, and “create” became my mantra. Those “rules” of photography remain present within my creative style, not as boundaries but merely as visual reminders of my photographic roots.

Every image I now create is meant to reveal the unique and genuine essence of whomever I photograph, and to provide them with a body- and mind-positive experience. I’m aware that as a visual medium, photography inherently emphasizes the physical elements of its subjects. My creative challenge is to capture the underlying narrative that is oftentimes not visible in an image—the personality, emotion and individuality buried deep within everyone—whether I’m photographing for a studio fashion layout, an edgy lifestyle boudoir series or as commissioned conceptual wall art.

The ultimate affirmation and acceptance I receive from my art comes when people can see and appreciate their true beauty, inside and out, within the framework of my creativity.

—Rodney Margison

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