Roman Loranc was born in Poland in 1956 and immigrated to the United States in 1982. In 1990, after settling in California’s Great Central Valley, he dedicated himself to photography after his imagination was sparked by the vanishing subjects which surrounded him; the delicate and fragile wetlands shadowing the Pacific Flyway, the primeval contours of the Diablo Range and the sinuous, radiant surfaces of once-mighty rivers.

Since Loranc grew up in a mountainous region of Poland, he spent many hours exploring the pristine trout streams and meadow marshlands before they were irrevocably altered by the industrialism of postwar Poland. Although the Central Valley is a dramatically different landscape, during Loranc’s wanderings in the remnants of the woodlands and wetlands, he often recalls the original purity and rapture of his earliest experiences.

The Central Valley of California, according to Loranc, is under appreciated and besieged. But he feels it’s beauty is resilient and powerful enough to heal and also inspire healing. Loranc does most of his photography in the early hours "in very gentle light" and frequently works in the soft, low-lying winter fogs. The increasing pollution makes it "almost impossible" to work during other times of the year, he explains. Increasingly renowned as an important conservation photographer, Loranc’s growing reputation has gained him special access to some of California’s most private and sacred property.

Loranc’s rich sepia toning endows his prints with a mysterious atmosphere, while his exquisite silver papers remind us that a contemporary artist is at work. His immaculate, imaginative printing of his large 4"x5" negatives combined with a rare heightened subject sensitivity, give the resultant photographs a tactile, dreamlike quality that is technically unsurpassed. Today Roman Loranc is carefully carving a unique and important niche in contemporary California landscape photography.