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Richard D'Amore, Photographer

May 30, 1940 ~ December 14, 2006

Biography

Richard D'Amore dedicated more than thirty years to fine art photography,

distinguishing himself as a master printer. He first began his work in Mill Valley,

California, under the tutelage of artist and photographer Walter Chapell. In 1970, Mr.

D'Amore relocated to France with his brother, Robert D'Amore, also a fine art

photographer, to work and study. A powerful collection of his early photographs was

published in Zoom Magazine as early as 1971. During this time, he taught photography

at Camberwell College of Art in London, while building a reputation that extended from

private collectors to museums and galleries, both in Europe and the United States. Mr.

D'Amore's work was featured in Camera, Progresso Fotografico, Photocinema, and

Peterson's Photographic Magazine, among other fine publications. His work was also

published in Der Erotische Augenblick, by Stern Bibliothek der Fotografie, a

compendium of the evolution of fine art erotica. He is listed in the Photographer's

Collector's Guide by Lee D. Witkin and Barbara London.

Upon returning to the United States in the late 1970s, Mr. D'Amore continued to

expand his artistic horizons, concurrently working for the celebrated designers,

Charles and Ray Eames in their Venice, California studio.

Using vintage and specialized techniques, such as gum bichromate, carbon,

platinum, cyanotypes and hand tinting, Mr. D'Amore took great pride in the handmade

print. There is a haunting timelessness to his work, which has been exhibited

and collected throughout the world, and appears in a number of prestigious private

collections. He was a respected member of the Platypus Group of premier platinum

printers and Camera Press, Ltd., London, associations which brought him great joy.

His work appears in the Ironworks Portfolio, the first contemporary exhibition of

platinum printing.

His photography bears both an intimate and a universal appeal. The best of Mr.

D'Amore, the essence of him, is in each image, presenting his love song to the world,

his inner triumphs and torment, his poet's soul. The discriminating connoisseur and the

private collector alike respond to the aesthetic rapture of the elegiac landscapes, the

elegant architectural and still life studies, and the extraordinary nudes. Each image

evokes an immediate connection to the man, with all his artistic integrity and all his

personal grace.

Mr. D'Amore was born on May 31, 1940 and was tragically murdered by his wife

on December 14, 2006. Although his life was cut short, the focus of his legacy is not

upon how he died, but how he lived. Mr. D'Amore lives on in each superb image,

an echo of a quiet, reserved, immensely gifted man whose work will resonate forever.

A great poet has said that "some men should have mountains to bear their names to

time." It is Mr. D'Amore's fine art photography which will bear his name, and his vision,

to time.

-E.F.Caporale