20 Years of Photography

... Ropp's genius is that he brings the unexpected truth to every subject, and every subject he undertakes is a major one. We've known the figures in his photographs for millennia - in our collective unconscious, in dreams, in the face of gods, in fears, temptations, and lusts. They are fundamental and ageless, and they still dominate, torment, and occasionally delight our lives, but we seldom see them in contemporary art. Many of today's artists have banished or trivialized these subjects and, in effect, turned their backs on us. Life is often beastly, and art can be solace. In giving us the unexpected truth, William Ropp also gives us a revivifying truth. We leave the experience of his work with no false comfort, but the knowledge that our fears are not unique but part of humanity's ageless, repeating drama. And that has always been the gift of great art ...From the foreword by Prof. John Wood