"SCAPES" Tucker uses the term "Scapes" to describe the subject matter, settings and arrangement of his photographic montages and single images. The Scapes present the visual equivalent of psychological mindscapes, or tableaus, by the juxtaposition of the larger image to the related smaller images. The idea of barriers, real or imagined, is also explored through these juxtapositions. Sometimes race is the issue. Other times it’s the quest to look at something differently by isolating it through enlargement. The pixilation and abstraction that results from the digital enlargement calls attention to the technical process but it also gives the viewer different ways of experiencing the image, depending on their proximity to the piece. Messages from the signage that surrounds us figure prominently or sometimes subtlety, in some of the Scapes. Signs that direct or warn take on new meaning in some of the images. Initial photographs (Series I) were taken with a 35mm camera. The images were then digitally scanned, assembled and printed. These photographs include a traditional landscape, cityscape and portrait. The portrait illustrates the subject’s connectedness to his surroundings and provide insights to his frame-of-mind. These early montages suggest an affiliation either through similarity of material, motion, color and location and sometimes via historical links. These early works were the first of a series that investigated Tucker’s lifelong concerns about the physical, historical and spiritual links and influences culled from the dynamic urban/suburban environment of the New Jersey/New York metropolitan area. The newer Scapes (Series II and III) were taken with a digital camera. Archival inks and papers are used to guarantee the longevity and value of the work. BIOGRAPHY: Roger Tucker began taking photographs while attending Arts High School in Newark, New Jersey. Exhibiting and selling his first portraits of friends and relatives at a local arts and crafts show contributed to an understanding that photographic images, no matter how naïve, commanded interest and communicated to complete strangers the powerful "connection" between the artist and his subject matter. Photographic studies continued for Tucker while he attended the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City. His work is included in the first volume of The Black Photographers Annual in 1973, one of the first independent publications of important and new photographers of color, developed and produced by New York’s creative African-American community. Recently, Tucker’s Series I Scapes were included in the ART IN THE ATRIUM group show in Morristown, New Jersey. EDUCATION: The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, NY, BFA, 1974 Pratt Intstitute, Brooklyn, NY, MS, 2003 BOARD MEMBERSHIPS: Vice President, Arts Council of the Essex Area, 1994-current National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Newark Branch, 1994-1996 Secretary and Treasurer of the Alumni Council of Cooper Union, 1993