Mysterious, dark, and devoid
of any solid emotion are the human models in the portfolio of
William Ropp. In Ropp's world, his models appear to be isolated
from the world in an often eerie and peculiar atmosphere. Small
slivers of light fall upon these human forms, which serve to
add a real sense of the unknown in Ropp's mysterious world.
William Ropp is a masterful artist and photographer, who approches
his subject matter in a way which is quite different than most
photographers we have reviewed on Profotos. While most photographers
attempt to produce flattering images of their models, which accentuate
their bodies beautiful shapes and curves, Ropp's approach to
exploring his subjects is to contort their bodies into bizarre
shapes and forms. The results of this approach are nothing less
than astonishing. The magnificent aesthetic beauty of Ropp's
images is without a doubt, nothing short of the work of a master
photographer.
Mystery and intrigue await while you enter the portfolio of
this most ingenious photographer. We invite you to browse the
gallery of one of this generation's greatest photographers of
the human body - William Ropp.,I know William Ropp's pictures,
those he has not yet taken and those he will never take. Those
he most often exhibits are of naked bodies,
as smooth as fish, with no opening to be found. Their mouths
are sealed shut so that no words can escape. When they open,
they are dark chasms, delivering silent screams.
Their nostirls don't breathe. Their eyes never look at you,
but at something in front of you or at something at your side
so that they don't have to communicate. In his relentless search
for the other, William Ropp runs into the impenetrable barriers
of skin and silence. Adults with hallucinating eyes, children
who have lost their innocence, all have withdrawn into themselves.
The artist pulls on their flesh in vain. He deforms their bodies
but can't open them to release their souls. In the dark, in vain,
he uses a ray of light as a laser to cut out a palpitating bit
of flesh. It can't be done. No light penetrates, he can onlly
sculpture shadow. Sometimes, a bluish vein can be seen, when
it is just under the skin. But it is impossible to go deeper,
impossible to dig further. One even wonders if there is any skeleton
to hold up the weight of these gelatinous packages, these human
jellyfish.
And so, to take revenge, the photographer imprisons his models
in cages of solitude. If he can't reach them, no one else will
either. He envelopes them in a thick fog or wraps them in a labyrinth
of veils. Or he isolates them in a pile of steel rafters, in
ancient ruins, in burning deserts...Thus William Ropp exerts
his godlike power, freezing the other forever in a casing of
crystal.
Tomorrow he will use other magic to continue his quest: tones
and colors, symmetries, abstractions, writings, monsters, and
chimera, split personalities and crowds... The paths to explore
are innumerable. But we can be sure that nothing will ever satisfy
him: we will never find William there where Ropp is lost.
--Michel Spielmann