Blurring the line between reality and fantasy – the photographs of Dene Rossouw

When North Vancouver’s Dene Rossouw takes a photograph he’s not looking to capture the physical reality of the scene he wants to evoke a mood, an emotional experience or just draw our attention to a detail that we might not otherwise have noticed.

His photo of the Dominion Building on West Hastings is shot from an unusual angle–looking up Cambie Street that manages to capture the character and the energy of the building. It’s a fascinating study because all the buildings are heritage and if not for the cars and the signs, could have come from any time over the last 100 years.

“I’m looking to find some sort of expression in the photograph that is not always the reality that we see with the eye,” he says. “I want to bring out something that we’ve never noticed, but it’s always been there right in front of us–like salt and pepper on the table.”

Dene says he can shoot up to 300 photographs of a scene—whether that’s a building or a garden or an object like a bike or a truck—before choosing the one that works.

He chose an old truck in Tofino that told a story, an original Fort Langley workshop, and the colours punch right out of his photo of the Japanese garden on Mayne Island.

The brightening effect he produces in the photos is called High Dynamic Range Imaging, (HDR), a process that brings out extreme ranges or definitions of colour.

The photo taken at the corner of Cambie and Water Street in Gastown was shot on a cold frosty night in late December. Dene noticed that the street signs were throwing some colour onto the buildings and he’s highlighted that colour in the photograph.

A general store at the Burnaby Village Museum caught his attention because of its authenticity. “It was teeming with character,” he says. “Unlike some of these places when they try to preserve heritage and it looks overly manufactured.”

Dene brings an eclectic background to his photography. He has a degree in theology from the University of South Africa, he’s a certified executive coach through Royal Roads University, and he studied workplace conflict at the Justice Institute of B.C. Mostly though, he’s a motivational teacher and experimental photographer. Check out more photos on his website.

If you’d like to take your own photos and need a good guide to get started, check out the Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Photography.

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