August Faltin Historical Building
Bill Scales
After a successful forty five year career as a United Methodist clergyman, Dr. Roland T. "Bill" Scales began a second career as a fine art photographer, traveling the world in search of significant images.
When I was twelve years old, I watched a neighbor develop some prints in his home darkroom. Standing there watching an image appear on a blank sheet of white paper was magic! After more than six decades, the magic is still there.
Being an active photographer for all these years has given Scales a unique sense of what light does to film and what photographic chemistry does to printing paper. He does all his own darkroom work because he likes to control the finished product. He has recently begun to do digital work using the latest issue of Photoshop. He is widely respected for his work with young photographers.
His images, from a collection of more than 200,000 slides and negatives, hang in private dwellings and office buildings throughout the Southwest, and have been featured in galleries and museums in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Washington, D.C., and New York City. His interest in environmental issues has led to publication of his photographs in several venues. Some of his prized prints appear in the book "Creatures On the Edge" published by the Rio Grande Valley Land Fund. The Art Museum of Southeast Texas honored him recently with a long running exhibit of his travel photographs. He was one of only four Texas photographers so honored.
He has been awarded "Best Photography" blue ribbons in both the Official Texas State Arts and Crafts Fair in Kerrville and the prestigious Art Festival of Round Top, Texas. His contest photographs have been exhibited by Kodak in more than thirty cities around the world. His philosophy of photographic work is simple:
I think if you photograph truthfully and effectively, you are going to see beneath the surface of things - of life itself - and record the qualities of humanity and nature which transcend but do not destroy appearances. A photographer's work is given shape and style by his own personal vision. It is not one's 'technique' which is important, or the equipment he uses, but the way one sees the world around about.