The images in Rocky Schenck’s second book of fine-art photographs may possess a commonality in the feeling of enigma that they evoke in the viewer, and they certainly demonstrate a wide-ranging vision. It feels like Schenck and the camera are one, as if he’s an explorer, always ready to capture what’s in front of him — and it appears that he frequents unusual places. “I’d say that I’m blessed with curiosity; that’s what gets me through life,” he said in a recent interview about The Recurring Dream (University of Texas Press).
In the book’s afterword, he says photography has been “such a refuge for me — my escape, my best friend, and my shrink — for so many years.” He told Pasatiempo, “I always have a camera. You just never know what’s going to happen, what you’re going to see, what you’re going to encounter, or what’s going to unfold in front of you, or what you’re going to feel like pursuing.”