While the following commentary on my work/development as an artist stands, I feel to add context to my most recent work. Whereas I was energized by going out to view and document night life, musicians, various celebrations and activities and people for years...once we all experienced the pandemic...things changed. I became softer in my visions. More quiet in my images. Spending time with flowers. With the ocean. I changed. Long ago, I spent years in the darkrooms of custom printing photographic labs near Boston, Massachusetts learning how to see colors and the subtle tones of black and white when printing. I was already freelancing with a little 35mm camera and a twin lens Rolleiflex camera…but, I had no idea where I would go from there. Photojournalism was a comfortable style to begin with. My direction established itself with the stepping stones of each subsequent area of photographic related work from printer and freelancer, to apprentice for a lead photographer for Brookstone Stores catalogues (when it would take 3 to 4 hours to set up one product photograph) which honed my skills to eventually embrace commercial photography with the necessary discipline and eye for “making something talk to you” from a flat page. Then, on to portraiture, wedding photography and work as a media photographer. While much of my training was on the job, not all was. When I joined a family run photographic studio in Nashua, New Hampshire, it called on my printing skills while training me for studio and location executive and candid portraiture, and wedding coverage. (Did you know a wedding in the northeast lasts from 8 to 12 hours where one in the South is only 4?) So as a wedding photographer in the northeast, I photographed as many as 50 weddings in a year…Each 8 to 12 hours of never to be repeated special moments. This was before the smaller digital cameras. I worked with medium format cameras: Hasselblad, Mamiya and Rapid Omega Press cameras. Yes, I treated my body like pack mule carrying equipment, backup cameras, battery packs and tripod. During the 7 years with this studio, I attended workshops with master photographers through the Professional Photographers of America and NEIPP (New England Institute for Professional Photographers) and, more than once, was cloistered in Mount Holyoke College in New England in nun's quarters with other photographers from all over the world to attend week long intensives to advance our skills. After decades as a photographer, with the advent of digital photography, I took a hiatus. I worked for a computer software company and had no idea how handy that training with computers would soon be. With the motivation of both curiosity and a need to create…something..., I finally picked up a digital camera and fell in love with the challenge of new technology. In deciding to teach myself what I could do with digital technology, I sought some of the toughest situations a photographer can work in at times. Specifically, in smoky bars with terrible lighting and moving subjects = photographing musicians. That brought not only an understanding of digital technology, but, an appreciation that I had not had before of the talented folks, in this case musicians, that create and offer their skills so openly. I wanted to mirror the emotions, the vulnerability, I saw and felt while photographing them in the images I produced. The slideshow on my website reflects some of this work: https://www.mcrollo.com People evolve. I never thought of myself as a "artist"...until other people kept calling me that. It has taken 10 years as a member of the Shreveport Regional Arts Council to embrace that freedom. I am truly humbled because of the deep pool of talented artists around me. Creating images/art keeps me focused and sane. Without this ability and opportunity, heck, my world would be very different. My images have been published and collected in the UK, Canada, Sweden and the USA.