We cross them daily, and mostly take them for granted as utilitarian conveyances that get us from point A to point B. But seen from the air, the Bay Area’s eight toll bridges become works of sculptural art that complement and accent the region’s crowning scenic jewel, the San Francisco Bay.
Published: January, 2010
Written by Jo Kagan, Photos by Barrie Rokeach
We cross them daily, and mostly take them for granted as utilitarian conveyances that get us from point A to point B. But seen from the air, the Bay Area’s eight toll bridges become works of sculptural art that complement and accent the region’s crowning scenic jewel, the San Francisco Bay.
As the Bay Area’s dean of aerial photography, Barrie Rokeach has kept his lens trained on the region’s iconic and lesser known bridges for more than three decades, revealing angles and aspects apparent to neither the motorists who cross them nor land-based observers. A pioneer in low-light aerial photography, Rokeach pilots the plane himself and prefers to capture the spans at dawn and late afternoon, when the bridges become etched in shadows, and cast dramatic shadows of their own on the water. Using his artist’s eye—honed at U.C. Berkeley, where he earned a master’s degree in design/photography—Rokeach creates abstract art from the intersection of steel, concrete and water.
Rokeach literally wrote the book on this specialty area of photography, the Kodak Guide to Aerial Photography, and also has produced Timescapes: California From the Air, a coffee table book focusing on the state’s dramatic geology. When he’s not pursuing his fine art photography, Rokeach is producing images for a wide range of corporate and institutional clients. His images have appeared in top magazines, including Scientific American, National Geographic, Forbes, Fortune, Life, Money, Time and Sunset, as well as in dozens of books. His work has also graced several Bay Crossings covers including this issue.
Rokeach’s images have been exhibited in numerous museums and galleries, including the Oakland Museum of California. Currently, an exhibit of his images, “Timescapes: California Aerial Images,” is on display at the California Science Center in Exposition Park in Los Angeles (www.californiasciencecenter.org/Exhibits/SpecialExhibits/Timescapes/Timescapes.php).
Rokeach has been featured in over 20 articles in the national press, most recently in Rangefinder, one of the premier professional photography publications (www.rangefindermag.com/storage/articles/RF1009_Rokeach_Skinner.pdf).
You can see more of Barrie Rokeach’s work at www.rokeachphoto.com, and contact him in Berkeley at barrie@rokeachphoto.com or (510) 527-5376.
