Photographer Francois Roux waited a full year to get just the right shot of New York’s Central Park after a snow storm. If that isn’t living riveted, what is?
The shot, which he calls “Central Park and the Lake after a Snow Storm,” is a panoramic view in black and white.
“I waited … for that magic moment where the fresh snow covers everything, slows New York City to a halt and muffles the traffic sounds,” he writes on his website.
After hearing the weather forecast calling for heavy snowfall one night, he readied himself for an early start the next morning.
“Five a.m., a quick coffee, a subway ride and there I was in Central Park West and 72nd Street, in the middle of the winter, just after the end of a major snow storm,” Roux writes. “There was hardly anybody in the street, the park was silent and all white. Twelve inches of fluffy snow. Heaven!”
A native of Gap, France (in the French Alps), Roux talked in our recent interview about his transition from real estate to photography, what it’s like making a living as a creative, and what he enjoys about it.
“I go to places many times until I see what I like,” Roux says.
It is a meticulous process that comes naturally to an organized, methodical man. As a teen in France, his interests were chemistry, ceramics and photography.
“At that time it was a mix between the film, the printing aspect and the creative aspect,” Roux says of his passion for photography. “It was sort of a mix of things I like so much.”
From there he picked up a fascination for computer science and subsequently earned an advanced degree from Lycee Dominique Villard, thus positioning him to develop specialized accounting software for use in beverage companies. At age 21, Roux joined his family’s beverage business and eventually became CEO.
He made his first visit to New York City in 1991 and was captivated, so much so that he decided to make it his home by 1994. Upon arrival, he earned his living helping to run a real estate business called New York Habitat.
“When I came to New York I didn’t have time to do anything else but real estate,” Roux says.
The photography faded away, but he fulfilled his creative side working on the website, coding with the computer team.
Then came September 11, 2001.
“The terrible images on TV and the tragedy and the spirit of pain,” Roux says. “I decided to buy a small digital camera.”
After about seven years without seriously engaging his camera, again Roux was attracted to the same things – the technical aspects and the visual.
“I was in a hurry to photograph all over Manhattan,” he says. “It was pleasing to no one but me.”
He goes on to explain that photography is about making time to be with himself, to quiet his mind, sort of like meditation.
“I got more serious in 2005 or so,” Roux says. “I started to finetune and explore what I liked most about photography.”
As his interest deepened, he started to purchase more sophisticated equipment. His sensibility or photographic personality developed. He tells me that sometimes observers of his work will note that his photographs don’t have people in them.
“It’s true,” he says with a laugh. “There is nobody.”
However, he sees his approach to some of the photos he takes of skyscrapers, often as close-ups, as his version of “doing a portrait of something.” He patiently waits for the right light so he is capturing an image he likes. A long lens from a distance is his way of “extracting the details.”
When in 2013 Roux decided this would be his main work, he wasn’t sure what his exact focus would be. Two years in, he remains “seduced” by black and white photography and recalls the first time he saw Ansel Adams’ work in a book. He prefers printing his own work, enjoying the satisfaction of the finished product. He also shoots in color, as he’s found in a competitive market it sells well as downloads.
“Another thing I discovered about photography is workshops,” says Roux, who conducts them in person and via Skype. “I love to teach. It allows me to share my passion. And it’s a way to meet and talk to people.”
He has found self-employment – or as he puts it, self-management – challenging. His daily life consists of making lists of ideas and figuring out what time, season, and weather would be best to execute them. He designs workshops. And then of course there’s the actual shoots. He has realized the importance of being energetically prepared for all of it, and perhaps most importantly, of staying positive.
I can’t help but ask -- is a fulltime life in photography what you expected?
“No,” Roux says. “I really didn’t understand what a week would be like. I had an innocent idea. That’s the truth. It was new to me. Maybe if I knew I wouldn’t have started. But if you ask me if I like it [now], the answer is yes.”
A pristine snowfall over a hushed New York is a heck of a payoff.
By Nancy Colasurdo
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