Duane Romanell is a fine art photographer/creative director with professional visual experience in fields as diverse as publishing, communications, entertainment, and education technology.

For him, photography has been no less than a catharsis, allowing the emotional desolation of a struggled past to emerge and become transformed into details of form and light. His stark, evocative images communicate from a somewhat detached perspective, inviting the viewer to complete a story, instead of imposing upon them a specific interpretation. Possessing a cinematic quality, the work captures moments of delight and decay between urban and rural landscapes as it examines the pervasive nature of human expression. Within the compositions, the angst of formulating a creative language is resolved. The artist is liberated.

Honors number among recognition by the American Society of Media Photographers (NJ chapter), work featured in Times Square for GE Healthcare's "Picture a Healthy World" initiative, publication in various independent fine art photography collections, as well as inclusion in exhibitions across the United States.

The artist currently resides in Northern, New Jersey with his wife, the abstract painter Christine Soccio, and family.

Photography to me is very Zen in its practice. It is about being in the "here and now" - at a certain place and time to capture within the mind's eye and camera's body a singular perspective unique to the individual. I believe each second is truly fleeting - becoming ghost and illusion as the next is born in its place. However, photography allows me to stop time, and the shots I take to become memory - not only of shape and color and light - but of the emotions and events, tragedy and salvation, that I experience. They are the embodiment of both the ordinary and exceptional in the world, and by using the creative tools at my disposal to transform life into art, a subject becomes immortal. In viewing this work, you will not merely bear witness to my journey, my process, you will see it through my eyes. YOU will become the conduit between "now" and "forever."

EventualIy, even the image, like memory, will suffer the inevitable degradation of age, as emulsion fades and pixels detach into ether. All that will remain IS the moment. This one. Now. I present my collection of "nows" to you - with a great sense of pride, elation, and reverence.

What you see, will never be the same. A life unfinished. My life.

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Copyright © 2004–2011 by Duane Romanell, all rights reserved.
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