|
Rolfe received his Associate of Arts degree from Diablo Valley College in 1993. During his years as a student, he worked as an assistant to Don Corning, a commercial photographer, where he learned a great deal about the zone system, as well as printing techniques. Rolfe studied landscape photography with Mark Citret, an associate of Ansel Adams, prior to entering Brooks Institute of Photograph, in Santa Barbara, California, in 1993. While a student at Brooks Institute, he studied with Nick Dekker, who introduced him to alternative processes and pushed him to create powerful images. He received multiple awards for his black and white photographs of the California landscape and recognition for pioneering interactive digital photography. When Rolfe received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Brooks Institute in the fall of 1996, he was named as the most outstanding graduate of his class and presented with a plaque in recognition of his accumulated achievements in landscape and digital photography. "Growing up on the West Coast, I always thought of fine art photography in terms of Ansel Adams, Morley Baer or John Sexton. Even though I had made many images of interesting urban scenes, structures, and nocturnes, I never thought of these types of images in terms of art, that is until I witnessed the images of Mr. Kenna." Rolfe met Michael Kenna a short time later and has been assisting Mr. Kenna since then. At that time, Rolfe decided to give up the advertising career, work with Mr. Kenna, and pursue a fine-art career. Rolfe continues to live and work as an artist and photographer in the Bay Area. His passion for the art is stronger than ever, yet his focus has shifted toward a more surrealist interpretation of the landscape. Rolfe's photographs have been shown in numerous exhibitions since 1989 and is held in many private and public collections such as the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. |