Richard Rothman's photographs primarily deal with value, something which is extremely apparent due to his decision to omit color. Each of his photographs contain a pure black and a pure white tone. They also are extremely textural, dealing with the patterns created by juxtaposing different grey tones. In his portraits, he typically photographs people head to toe.
I'm having a hard time identifying a single conceptual theme that unifies Rothman's work. His photographs have this feeling to them like he's just neutrally documenting things... people, nature, etc. The way that he photographs people from so far away creates an impersonal feeling of disconnect. I feel like he's not engaging these people, the untouched environment, etc. The lack of color might add to this feeling.
Rothman's photographs demonstrate the strength of black and white photography in landscape photography. He also demonstrates an objective way of photographing people. We've seen a lot of photographers going inside of people's homes, into their own space to photograph them. But, these seems to be the opposite approach.
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