BIOGRAPHY

Clifford Ross (b. 1952 New York, NY) is a photographer and multimedia artist perpetually on the forefront of inventing and reinventing both traditional and new media. With an eye on the sublime and ecclesiastical experiences of nature, Ross pushes the boundaries of his chosen medium in his effort to create transformative art that translates for his viewer the magnitude of his subject. In the 1990s, he created the high resolution film camera, the R1, and he continues to develop printing methods and other technological firsts in the photographic and moving image field. “I am always looking for the fullest expression of my conception and will follow it past any sane point,” Ross explains. “Over and over again, invention is part of creativity.”

A cornerstone of Ross’s technically pioneering career is his dedicated study of Mount Sopris in Colorado. These images—captured by the R1 camera system which he invented using military aerial film and a unique digital post-production process—push the “reality quotient” of the photographic medium, creating images that open the tiniest details in the vast landscape to the most stringent scrutiny. The sheer scale and resolution of these works are designed to create a lived experience for the viewer, who is able to contemplate the majesty of the Colorado mountain as if they were standing in front of it.

Ross began his subsequent well-known Hurricane series in 1996, marking a shift in his practice towards observing the forms and movements of water. He captured striking ocean waves by wading into the surf—while tethered to shore—during severe storms on the East Coast. The resulting black and white photographs translate the power and dynamism of waves into still images, their hyperrealism nearly rendering nature abstract.

He has furthered this fascination with water by using two new mediums in his Wood Waves and Digital Waves works. Wood Waves further the abstraction of the original Hurricane series by incorporating natural wood grains into the image, while also exploring the possibilities of the photographic print. Ross utilizes an innovative technique of digitally printing images onto carefully selected panels of maple veneer, contrasting the texture and pattern of the maple with the foam and spray of the wave. In its raw form, wood is a material rarely associated with photography, but here it realizes the tension between water and land.

Digital Waves are composed of LED walls that feature dramatic, computer-generated videos inspired by hurricane waves, as Ross found video recording an insufficient means to capture the fluid movement of swelling and breaking. Combining advanced computer modeling and light-based animation, each Digital Wave contains millions of individual dots.

Ross received his BA in Art and Art History from Yale University in 1974. He lives and works in New York, NY.

This year, Ross's work will be included in COAL + ICE, an immersive photography and video exhibition at New York's Asia Society that visualizes the causes and consequences of the climate crisis and foregrounds creative solutions. Visitors to the exhibition will be greeted by a two-story presentation of large-scale photographs by Ross that capture the menacing waves of Nazaré, Portugal, which swell up to 100 feet high with increased hurricane and storm activity.

In 2021, Ross's work was was the focus of Sightlines, a major solo exhibition that surveyed the artist's work. In 2017, Parrish Art Museum on Long Island presented Light | Waves, a solo exhibition of Ross’s Wood Waves and Digital Waves; this was the first time that the museum allowed an artist to utilize their highway-facing facade, an occasion for which Ross made two 100-foot long Digital Wave LED walls.

He has further been included in group and solo exhibitions at NYUAD Art Gallery, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (2023); Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, AR (2021); Peabody Essex Museum, MA (2021); J. Paul Getty Museum, CA (2021); Colby College, ME (2019); Boca Raton Museum of Art, FL (2019); Remai Modern, Korea (2019); Denver Art Museum, CO (2018); Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Portugal (2018); Parrish Art Museum, NY (2017); BRIC House, NY (2015); Zhejiang Art Museum, China (2015); Austin Museum of Art, TX (2009); Yale University Art Gallery, CT (2012); Guild Hall Museum, NY (2011); MADRE/Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Italy (2009); and George Eastman House, NY (2005), among others.

Ross’s work is held in the public collections of Buffalo AKG Art Museum, NY; International Center of Photography, NY; J. Paul Getty Museum, CA; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Musée d’Art Moderne, France; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Museum of Modern Art, NY; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Parrish Art Museum, NY; Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA; Pio Monte della Misericordia Church, Italy; Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, MA; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY; United States Mission to the United Nations, NY; Wadsworth Atheneum, CT; Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; and Yale University Art Gallery, CT, among others.