Ron Amato has been making photographs since his childhood in Brooklyn, NY. His early influences were fashion and portrait photographers Richard Avedon, Robert Mapplethorpe and Francesco Scavullo. Much of Amato’s work centers on issues of sexual identity.
His ‘recent work centers around issues of aging in the Gay community, diverse images of male beauty, idealized body manipulation, image and social media, and embracing same-sex attraction. In 2017 Amato published his first monograph, The Box, which continues his exploration of these themes. The photo series and book garnered worldwide praise and won an American Photographic Artists Award for Outstanding Photography Series.
He first visited PTown in 1999 and fell in love…. with the Town (+) and this began his journey into capturing the different aspects of Provincetown and the individuals who have left an indelible mark. Amato says It was really a search for beauty.
His new retrospective features images dating back to his first time here, along with an evolution of this approach through the years paralleling his now routine trips to Provincetown. His image and how they chart digital advancement can be seen beginning :
July 27 at E.lesh Gallery, 237 Commercial Street at Whaler's Wharf, Provincetown.
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In 2004 Amato began teaching and is currently a Professor in the Photography and Related Media department at the Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC. Ron has a BFA from School of Visual Arts and an MFA from Long Island University.
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