Gerald Ratto geraldratto.com

"People sometimes ask me where I want to go to take pictures. I never have an answer. I say I'll know when I get there. I think this is the only way to stay fresh. All of us have only so many creative ideas. If you have a preconceived notion of what you want to photograph, your work all starts to look alike. I photograph what's in front of me. Then people, buildings, objects and landscapes tell their own stories." It is this philosophy that has kept Gerald Ratto's work fresh and exciting for more than five decades…and counting. Born in 1933, Ratto began photographing with his mother's inexpensive box camera at age 12. He enrolled at University of California, Berkeley with plans to become an architect but instead switched to photography; as he felt that his fascination with light and form might be best expressed behind the camera. He transferred to the California School of Fine Arts [now San Francisco Art Institute] famed photography program founded by Ansel Adams in 1945. There he received invaluable creative and professional insights from the programs many instructors, including department head Minor White, as well as other photographic luminaries Imogen Cunningham, Dorothea Lange, and Edward Weston.

His distinguished career in fine art and commercial photography began while he was still a student. Before graduating, his work was exhibited alongside his instructors in the landmark juried "Perceptions" show at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1952. Upon graduating from CSFA in 1953, Ratto combined an interest in architecture with his skills as a photographer to specialize in architectural photography. Among his clients were such noted firms and designers as Buckminster Fuller, I.M. Pei, Gensler, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. His architecture work has been published in major architectural, interior and landscape design magazines and books. While architectural photography has provided his livelihood, his fine art portfolios perhaps best express Ratto's love of the photographic medium. "People relate to Gerald's work because it is arresting as well as aesthetically pleasing and beautiful," said Suzy R. Locke, President of Suzy R. Locke & Associates, art consultant to corporations and private individuals. "His approach eliminates the clichés." No one to ever take for granted his past accomplishments or successes, at age 79, Ratto still actively photographs. His most recent awards include the coveted juried International Black & White Spider Awards in 2010 and 2011 for categories of Photojournalism, Advertising, and People and 2009 International Photography Awards – Architectural Buildings - Honorable Mention. In 2008, B&W Magazine featured Ratto's "Children of the Fillmore" portfolio with a Spotlight Award and article highlighting his life's work and contributions to fine art photography; "With a career of more than five decades as a commercial and fine art photographer, Gerald Ratto could rightly be called one of the true legends of the San Francisco Bay-Area photography scene." Presently, his December 1958 photograph and cover design for Arts & Architecture magazine is being featured at LACMA [Los Angeles County Museum of Art] "California Design, 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way."