HALEY
FINE ART
FINE ART
Artist Bio
RON PARAS
Ron Paras
Artist Biography
Ron Paras grew up surrounded by photography. His father, a television news anchor working for NBC, loved photography and filmmaking and taught Ron how to develop and print image when he was five. "I can still smell the developer mixed with the musty sent of that cellar darkroom. My father was a great inspiration, imparting to me a wonderous world of light and shadow."
The works of master photographers Edward Weston, Minor White, Dorothea Lange, Harry Callahan, Man Ray, Robert Frank, Irving Penn, Elliot Erwitt, Aaron Siskind and others fueled Ron's interest in photography. "My camera became a permanent appendage and I worked both day and night expanding my photographic vocabulary." The images Ron made, along with several self-produced short films, brought scholarships and acceptance into Maryland Institute, College of Art (MICA) and Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) where he studied with his boyhood heroes Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind. After graduating, he entered the world of fashion photography shooting ads and photographic spreads that appeared in Vogue, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, L'Officiel and other magazines. A multi-projector presentation that Ron saw at the Hayden Planetarium in New York led to his fascination with multiple screen presentations. He left the glamorous and crazy world of "haute couture" to start a multimedia production company in Washington, DC. Paras Productions produced dozens of multimedia and instalations for Fortune 500 companies, associations and museums such as the Smithsonian and the San Francisco Museum of Art. Ron eventually shifted Paras Productions away from multimedia to video production and began producing music videos for MTV as well as videos for corporate and educational venues. A chance encounter with film director and choreographer Herbert Ross during the shooting of a music video led to a side career of television writing. "I told Herb about a concept for a script I was working on and he liked the idea. He became a mentor, encouraging my writing efforts and teaching me storytelling and character development." Ron never finished the screenplay; "It's still on my laptop. Perhaps one day it will tempt me back." However, through Ross's connections, Ron met a television producer Aaron Spelling who hired him as a contributing writer. "Writing for television was an interesting experience but not really my cup of tea. It was more velocity than creativity. I rememered it an accelerated speed, like an old silent movie."
Returning to Paras Productions, Ron moved his company toward graphic design and eventually web design and development. Today Paras Productions is a design and brand building company whose clients include the Motion Picture Association of America, the Smithsonian, and numerous organizations, companies and museums. "We produced the official graphics for four Presidential Inaugurals, and we've designed high profile websites for people like Camille Cosby."
In the early 2000's Ron and his wife Diane purchased a house in the Virginia countryside. On a whim, Ron decided to fill the empty walls with his own images. "The Virginia countryside became my stage for experimentation." This reignited Ron's long simmering passion for photography. "It was a get back to my roots moment. I hadn't done ant serious photography for many years, and I found that the experiances of past years had re-shaped my vision and opened new paths of expression." To quote Henry Callahan, "The mystery isn't in the technique; it's in each of us."
Ron Paras
Artist Biography
Ron Paras grew up surrounded by photography. His father, a television news anchor working for NBC, loved photography and filmmaking and taught Ron how to develop and print image when he was five. "I can still smell the developer mixed with the musty sent of that cellar darkroom. My father was a great inspiration, imparting to me a wonderous world of light and shadow."
The works of master photographers Edward Weston, Minor White, Dorothea Lange, Harry Callahan, Man Ray, Robert Frank, Irving Penn, Elliot Erwitt, Aaron Siskind and others fueled Ron's interest in photography. "My camera became a permanent appendage and I worked both day and night expanding my photographic vocabulary." The images Ron made, along with several self-produced short films, brought scholarships and acceptance into Maryland Institute, College of Art (MICA) and Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) where he studied with his boyhood heroes Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind. After graduating, he entered the world of fashion photography shooting ads and photographic spreads that appeared in Vogue, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, L'Officiel and other magazines. A multi-projector presentation that Ron saw at the Hayden Planetarium in New York led to his fascination with multiple screen presentations. He left the glamorous and crazy world of "haute couture" to start a multimedia production company in Washington, DC. Paras Productions produced dozens of multimedia and instalations for Fortune 500 companies, associations and museums such as the Smithsonian and the San Francisco Museum of Art. Ron eventually shifted Paras Productions away from multimedia to video production and began producing music videos for MTV as well as videos for corporate and educational venues. A chance encounter with film director and choreographer Herbert Ross during the shooting of a music video led to a side career of television writing. "I told Herb about a concept for a script I was working on and he liked the idea. He became a mentor, encouraging my writing efforts and teaching me storytelling and character development." Ron never finished the screenplay; "It's still on my laptop. Perhaps one day it will tempt me back." However, through Ross's connections, Ron met a television producer Aaron Spelling who hired him as a contributing writer. "Writing for television was an interesting experience but not really my cup of tea. It was more velocity than creativity. I rememered it an accelerated speed, like an old silent movie."
Returning to Paras Productions, Ron moved his company toward graphic design and eventually web design and development. Today Paras Productions is a design and brand building company whose clients include the Motion Picture Association of America, the Smithsonian, and numerous organizations, companies and museums. "We produced the official graphics for four Presidential Inaugurals, and we've designed high profile websites for people like Camille Cosby."
In the early 2000's Ron and his wife Diane purchased a house in the Virginia countryside. On a whim, Ron decided to fill the empty walls with his own images. "The Virginia countryside became my stage for experimentation." This reignited Ron's long simmering passion for photography. "It was a get back to my roots moment. I hadn't done ant serious photography for many years, and I found that the experiances of past years had re-shaped my vision and opened new paths of expression." To quote Henry Callahan, "The mystery isn't in the technique; it's in each of us."
