Reid Rolls grew up spending every free minute he had on the beaches and mountains of San Diego, California, always on 2 wheels or whatever board the day called for.
His first interest in photography came at age 11, when his dad (a gifted photographer who's natural eye for composition he still envy), would bring his old Nikkormat to his bmx and motocross races and shoot rolls and rolls of film. They spent many a Saturday night in the parking lot of the local 1-hour photo lab so he could have the prints that night. He'd edit down a collection he would take to school on Monday. He was quiet and observant, and never the most popular at school, but he remembers vividly those few minutes when I'd casually show his new racing photos to a few classmates, and for a few minutes, he'd actually feel cool.
Nearly 30 years later, while he looked through a box of prints from his dad's college photojournalism classes, he began to understand the value of still photographs in a new way. They have the power make someone feel emotion, to change opinions, to reveal things unexpected.
Despite being taken by the magic of photographs from an early age, it wasn't until after graduating college that he became interested in actually making my own pictures. When I finally picked up a camera sometime in the summer of 2008, it was love at first frame and day one. He read every book he could get his hands on, asked a few friends for advice, and within six months he'd left his job as a mortgage broker to pursue photography full-time.
His first portraits were mostly of musicians and singer-songwriter friends in Nashville and Los Angeles. His music and portrait portfolio grew, and in 2010 he moved to Brooklyn, NY and continued to hone his portrait skills. Within a couple of years he had photographed album covers and publicity images for every major record label, and even spent a year as the Staff Photographer at Atlantic Records.
Living in New York City drew him to the world of branding and advertising, and he expanded his portfolio beyond music and portraits as he dove into shooting more commercial and lifestyle work. He left Atlantic Records shortly after shooting his first advertising job and has since photographed campaigns for many well-known national and international brands, receiving commissions directly from brands' in-house creative teams, as well as their various ad agencies.
Represented by
SIDECAR
