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  Born and raised 100 miles east of Cincinnati in a small Ohio River town, nestled near scenic Shawnee State Forest, Tom Rogowski has never forgotten his Portsmouth, Ohio roots. Tom’s photography career has taken him all over the world, but it was his mother’s recording of all those family gatherings on thousands of Kodachrome transparencies, and his father’s darkroom in the basement that gave him the “spark”.  Fueling that fire were years worth of monthly, classic publications that constantly stuffed the family mailbox i.e.  Life, Look, Saturday Evening Post and his favorite, National Geographic.  “I was not a big reader, but studying all those big, bold pictures were captivating and subliminally setting my life’s course years before I even picked up a camera”.
 
After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from The Ohio State University, Tom continued to fulfill his passion for photography at R.I.T. (Rochester Institute of Technology, in Rochester, NY).  Here, Tom honed his technical skills, while earning a Bachelor of Science degree.  Whenever the opportunity arose, the Rocky Mountains were his photographic playground for recording powerful landscapes and unique natural scenes. This passion for capturing the great outdoors continues to this day.  
 
After college, Tom moved to San Francisco pursuing free-lance assignments.  While there, his favorite account became a Napa Valley winery.  Later, he moved back to the Midwest and renovated a 5000 sq. ft. penthouse loft in downtown Cincinnati, which served as his commercial photography home base for the next twenty-five years.  Tom’s portfolio became a virtual “Who’s Who” of Fortune 500 companies and began traveling the globe with his assignments.  Whether it was shooting in the depths of a Gold and Silver mine in Lovelock, Nevada to shooting executives in the Board Room of American Express in downtown Manhatten or, an assignment shooting in a god awful factory in Chihuahua, Mexico to shooting another CEO portrait at Euro-Disney in Paris, France.   Tom has seen and shot it all.
 
Shooting more on location, and less in the studio prompted Tom to close down his large space in downtown Cincinnati in 2001, and build a unique and more efficient space behind his home in Terrace Park.  It’s a cozy space with the look and feel of his own little Western lodge.
    
Being situated atop the Little Miami River and the Terrace Park Nature Preserve, Tom is in his element. This location continues to fueI his inspiration for his piercing photographs.  He loves capturing the colors and light as   nature’s changing seasons continuously and unpredictably unfold before him.   His commercial passion continues to be photographing people and still-lifes for advertising, editorial & corporate communications, but his personal one remains landscapes of the great outdoors. The selected images represent a bit of his “heartfelt reflection” of each. 
Enter and enjoy!
 
Career Highlights
Every assignment Tom completes ends up not only with “the image”, but with a “story and a memory” as well. A few of his personal favorites include;  Photographing then President Reagan for part of a day, as well as Emeril (bam !) Lagasse over a two day period;  Shooting a six year Huffy and Raleigh Bike Ad campaign, which took him to such locations as Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Lake Tahoe, Glacier, Cape Cod, NYC -Central Park, Lake Placid, Palm Beach, Seattle, San Francisco, Sedona, Washington DC;  Then, there were the dozens of assignments taking him from one end of Europe to the other, and back again.
 
Some of his more noteworthy clients include:  American Express, American Financial, AT&T, Business Week, Cintas, Eclipse Aviation, Ethicon, GM, Harper Collins Publications, Lexmark International, Penn Central, Mac World, NCR, P&G, People Magazine, Physician’s Practice Magazine and many local and out of town financial institutions.
 
Tom’s work has appeared in many publications, including Communication Arts, and has  received numerous awards.  He is a long standing member of the national organization ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers), as well as being a member of the Advertising Club of Cincinnati.

 

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