Roy Volkmann

Born in St. Louis Missouri, Volkmann left the Mid-West for the cosmopolitan atmosphere of NYC, then Paris, where his photographic career began in the 80's, primarily working for beauty, fashion, advertising and editorial clients in Europe.

A one-time jazz and ballet dancer, Volkmann returned to his first career, camera in hand, bringing his knowledge of movement and the human body to his new vocation with telling effect. “This experience gave me an understanding and respect for the body - its movement through space, its tension and releases. I try to bring that to a photograph”.

“His dance photographs are studies in form and the grace of movement, revealing the performers’ strength, poise and kinetic symmetry. Volkmann’s stark, simple lighting defines and emphasizes taut lines of musculature. Through his lens, he captures the dancers’ fluid motion, freezing in time their liquid dynamics and transforming them into discrete, geometric images.”

As a Dance photographer, he has collaborated with The Alvin Ailey Company, Dance Theater of Harlem, David Parsons, Feld Ballet, Philobolus, and The Monte/Brown Dance Company. The latter has honored him by naming a suite after him "The Volkmann Suite", a dance created with inspirati...