Intrigued by the idea of celebrating a world seen only through his own viewfinder, Rick Crockett became a serious photographer within moments of taking his first camera out for a test run on the back streets of San Francisco more than 25 years ago. Since that day he has created a body of work that encompasses a wide range of subject matter and themes, all based on the simple principle that anything visually and emotionally compelling is worth the effort to memorialize that experience as an image that will outlive the person who captured it -- himself. To that end, Mr. Crockett has taken pictures of musicians, magicians, politicians, chimpanzees, children, Caribbean vistas, Scottish ruins, urban demise, lobster shacks, and coastal life on opposite sides of America, as well as having lent his eye to innumerable public and private events in his capacity as a professional photographer.
Current and ongoing photographic projects include “Beyond the Call of Beauty,” a compilation of images exploring the inevitable, slow-motion deterioration of physical and natural matter as it is observed in the real-time world around us. For pedestrians and lovers of the urban experience, there is Rick’s "Crosswalks" series of photographs that expose asphalt and street paint at their most whimsically artful. Another work in progress is “REFLECTIONS, etc.,” a compelling assortment of images showcasing natural and manmade objects whose surfaces often create and serve as multi-dimensional puzzles mirroring other objects that are nearby and capable of projecting a similar visual impact and power of their own. Mr. Crockett also recently exhibited a selection of his popular “Tidal Ways” photographs at Politics & Prose, one of DC’s preeminent bookstores and meeting places for best-selling authors and art aficionados alike.
In addition to his photographic efforts, Rick Crockett is the author of four books of poetry. His latest, MOSES STUTTERED (Musings on Love, Faith & Other Tricks of Light), was his first collection in nearly 30 years, and an entire page is dedicated to it on this website. Several of the images that appear in MOSES are from his “Tidal Ways” series. Mr. Crockett is also the creator of “Lines on the Face of Portland,” a framed exhibition of six impressionistic "wall poems” commemorating the 350th birthday of Maine’s largest city. His work has drawn praise from Lawrence Ferlinghetti, an American poet whose A CONEY ISLAND OF THE MIND still remains the most popular book of poetry ever sold in the U.S. Rick is currently working on his next collection of poems, tentatively titled, TALKING IN MY SLEEP.
A recent resident of coastal San Diego and Southern Maine, Rick Crockett now makes his home in the vibrantly upbeat community of Silver Spring, Maryland.
THE SHADOW AT WORK
