About

A native of Southeast Texas, Richard Allen Ashmore grew-up in an area that is more akin to Louisiana and the Deep South than the stereotypical view of cowboys, cattle, and desert for which Texas is so famous.  Yet, the summers of his youth spent on family road trips to Colorado and Wyoming coupled with his exposure to the sharp, iconic photographs of Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, influenced his early interest in the nature and geology of the American West.

He formally studied geology at Lamar University and Texas Tech University, earning professional degrees while conducting research in the American Southwest.  It was during this time that he began shooting documentary style photographs, while a geological research assistant in Big Bend National Park.  Although those first photographs lacked the complexity of his later professional work, his initial desire to capture and preserve temporal moments, both in clarity and detail, began to grow into an obsession eventually producing work that has been described as “technical masterpieces” by Cliff Deal, Director of the Louisiana State Museums.  

As his knowledge of photographic techniques and history grew so did his professional training in the sciences and his interests in human nature, history, and architecture. This eclectic combination of interests, education, and experiences has come to express itself in his photographs.

Today, Ashmore employs a variety of photographic styles and methods to record intimacy, expansiveness, or both.  All strive to capture indelible, yet fleeting, moments, whether it is a key moment of interaction or a culmination of moments recorded in a landscape, or a human structure or activity.  Most importantly, he strives to place the viewer in that moment, capturing their eye, imagination, and curiosity.

In her review of Illuminance 2011, juror Jill Enfield, respected printmaker and professor at Parsons School of Design, elucidated upon the effect of Ashmore’s work.

                    Every one of Richard Ashmore’s black and white images

                   was printed to perfection, and I could not keep my eyes off

                   of them.  The provocative juxtaposition of dying flowers left

                   in a grave is something that most people don’t think of as

                   beautiful.  However, Ashmore’s image was indeed beautiful.

                   So much so that the sad feeling one would get from looking

                   at a grave or dying flowers was washed away.  Beauty and

                   light are the elements that transcend the thought of death

                   and remind you of the importance of the spirit of the living.

Ashmore’s work resides in collections at Texas Tech University’s Southwest Collection and Lamar University, as well as in numerous personal collections. His photographs has been featured in the publications B&W + Color and Silvershotz Folios 2011, as well as in the online publications and blogs 591 Photography, F-Stop, get addicted to . . . , and Lenscratch.

Since 2006, Ashmore’s work has been shown in 66 national and international exhibitions and has received numerous juror and portfolio awards.  In 2007 and 2008, he was given a large solo exhibition at the Buddy Holly Center Fine Arts Gallery, in Lubbock, Texas, in the exhibit Texas Works 2007.