Roxanne Mccann

Roxanne McCann, a native of San Francisco, California, received her degree in Classics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. During her year abroad, at the Stanford campus in Rome, she studied the history of art in Italy. The influence of her favorite period, the Renaissance, is evident in much of her work.

In the Ancestral Traditions photo essay, we see the dramatic chiaroscuro effect used by Caravaggio combined with the captured moment of the sculptor Bernini. The subjects are lit only by available light - a spotlight, fire, or a sunbeam, and at times emerge from the darkness like apparitions. We see her photojournalistic training in these mostly candid images. McCann uses advanced darkroom techniques to print her custom gelatin silver limited edition photographs.

In much of her color work McCann leaves behind the gravitas of the black and white for a lighter feeling. The images are fun and cheery, with the beautiful faces, objects, and locations that make Hawai'i such a wonderful place.

In the nineteen-seventies and nineteen-eighties, Roxanne McCann learned photography while working in the production of television commercials. Her husband, Austin McCann, gave her her first camera and taught her the basics. She then had the opportunity to work with many supremely talented award-winning cinematographers, including Haskell Wexler, Conrad Hall, and Joe Pytka, both doing production stills and producing commercials. Since the ninteen nineties, she has turned to photography exclusively, based both on Kaua'i and in Malibu.

Robert Altman, President Gerald Ford, Ringo Starr, Martin Sheen, Carroll O'Connor, George C. Scott, Harry Hamlin, Lisa Rinna, Michael Jordan, Stacy Keach, Kenny G., John Larroquette, Jack Lemmon, Sugar Ray Leonard, Nicole Kidman, David Hasselhoff, Suzanne Sommers, Henry Fonda, Burgess Meredith, Lady Redgrave, and Nicollette Sheridan are among the many people McCann has photographed.

McCann's work has been published in the Netherlands, Hungary, Australia, Norway, Portugal, France, South Africa, Brazil, Colombia, Poland, Switzerland, and the United States in L'Officiel, French TV Guide, You, Who, People, US, AdAge, Variety, In Style, Menu, This Week on Kaua'i (cover), Hana Hou, Modern Bride, and Hawai'i Magazine, among others, and many newspapers. Her photos have been seen on Oprah! and the InStyle Television Special, and can be found in Vera Wang's Weddings, Colin Cowie's Wedding Book, and on several compact disc covers and inserts.

"It is a joy to photograph people and be able to show their beauty to them. There is nothing more rewarding than a smile on the face of someone who is happy with my work", says McCann.