Exclusives

Rodney Rascona

AUTO-Biography

Meet International Image maker Rodney Rascona

Africa Attracts
I have been with wonderful people with whom I have managed to laugh and cry with. I could speak for days of my memories. It has truly been the most enriching experience of my life, along my career and once you get involved with humanitarian organizations, there is just no looking back. I wouldn’t have ever gone to Africa had I not been involved with my work there. A project last November, led me to Kenya. A black and white calendar in museum style piece for FH/Kenya was to help them raise their identity in the region. Out in the bush, up along the Ethiopian border is a town called Marsebit.



The remote village area is the home to the tribe called the Rendillies, who represent young 21 year olds from that are given the responsibility of protecting its people from neighboring tribes. It was arranged for me to sit with a group of these young men out in the desert. I did not know really what I was going to do but we met on the road and walked back in to the bush to talk. There were about ten of them an interpreter and me. We walked out of eyesight from the others and sat down on rocks amongst the cacti. They were tough guys, marauders in their own right who would track down a cattle thief for days just to kill him and settle scores. They were not just dressed up in coloured ornaments and paint merely for the tourists. It was very real for me, an advertising type with long hair, sitting with tough guys who had hair longer than mine. It came to me that here we were. I just flew for two days to get there separated by thousands of miles and a vast ocean and yet in many ways, they and I shared the same belief structure. We believed in the same God and had the same desires in life.

I was a father already and they were soon to be of that age. They were impressed that a ‘white man’ would think of such things and so after a voicing of respect, I was allowed to make a half an hours worth of images ending in a war song or chant that talked of their latest hunt. When it was time to leave them behind in the desert, they waved to me and called me by my nickname ‘Jack’ ‘hey Jack! see you next time’.

In Africa, the areas I have traveled to, are remote for the most part and off the beaten track the tourists travel. But it is a beautiful landscape, sometimes serene and quiet at others, rugged and threatening. Even though I have been in some really tough places, the people have always been the same that you find everywhere. They treat you as you treat them. Be gracious and you will be returned with the same gestures. But I have to say that you have to be careful just where it is you travel in Africa. Just about all of the countries there have one issue or another with regard to civil unrest or violence. For instance, even though I’ve been to Rwanda a couple of times, I wouldn’t ever go there by myself nor would I go there without true business to do.

There are places that are dangerous in Africa, even though they are beautiful, they can at times, prove to be deadly to the uninformed. Do your research before you head out to places like this. My work there is humanitarian or what is called ‘Mission’. I don’t have a political agenda nor am I interested in getting embroiled in their local issues. I am informed and make an effort to understand the issues because it helps me make images that have true content behind them with real meaning. I work for free in support of their cause to help the worlds suffering with support for the expenses only, to produce the work and to get there. I usually contribute about 80+days a year to them in between commercial assignments.

Intro
Early interests
Car Specialist
Commercial Imagery
Creative challenges
Social Causes
Digital Enhancements
Personal schedules

You can find out more about his work by visiting his website www.rascona.com  |  www.rasconastock.com


In advertising not to be different is virtually suicidal.
— Bill Bernbach