Charles Roff Archive - Open Studios

Archive of renowned photographer Charles Roff 1952-2017 is opened for the first time to the public in the surroundings of his residence and studio.

Photographer and bon viveur Charles Roff was a seminal figure in Cornwall photography from the 1970s onwards, known for his powerful black and white landscape and nude imagery. His depictions of the local area, particularly Porthcurno and the surrounding coastline, remain as emblems of his love for Cornwall, the sea and beauty.

In the surroundings of his old residence and studio at Crean, his archive is opened up to the public for the first time this summer. A variety of photographic styles and techniques will be on display including some of Charles’s exquisite platinum prints, original dark room prints, and his expressive liquid emulsions. Visitors will also get an insight into ongoing work to bring Charles’s work back into public view.

Charles was born near Inverness, Scotland, and brought up in Rhodesia and Iran. After studying Film and Photography in Nottingham, he exhibited his photographs of portraits, landscapes, and nudes in the UK, France, USA, Germany, and Japan between 1977 and 2002. In the 1970s and 1980s Charles ran several successful photographic publishing companies including Foto-Roff and Black and White Publications and opened a gallery of the same name in Covent Garden, London.

At the beginning of the nineties, Charles returned to freelance photography, taking various commissions, leading immediately to an exhibition of landscapes for the National Trust Cable and Wireless entitled “A Beach Story.” This work coincided with a series of nudes Charles photographed on the beaches of Cornwall.

In 1994 Charles went to Bosnia as a stills cameraman on a BBC commissioned documentary filming the destruction of Mostar. A series he photographed of Mostar was subsequently used by WarChild charity, exhibited at their fund-raising events. In the last few years of his life he contributed to the documentary series ‘The Power of Art’ with Simon Schama as well as taking on a directorship at PZ Gallery, promoting art and fine art photography in Cornwall, England.