Cliff Roles

Sarasota, FL
Cliff Roles Photography
About Cliff

I was born in the UK and lived in Germany for 28 years until I emigrated to the US in 2001. After 13 years in Sarasota, Florida I became a proud U.S. citizen in February 2014.

I’ve been a professional photographer for over 10 years, and I’m proud to say that I’m pretty well-known in Sarasota for my event, performance and society photography. But five years ago I produced something a bit different: a book of photos - “Walkabout Europe - from my extensive European travel. In the summer of 2013 I went on a whirlwind "walkabout" of Europe. Over the course of a 53-day period, I visited 22 towns and cities in 15 countries. Exploring the scenic islands of Crete and Santorini, Dracula's Castle in Romania, and metropolises from Istanbul to Jerusalem, Warsaw, Helsinki and Berlin, I aimed my camera at whatever struck my fancy. The results are an eclectic portfolio of familiar tourist haunts and unexpected attractions that captures a continent undergoing change as it tries to blend its ancient roots with the demands of the 21st century.

July to October 2014: I spent 3 months covering the entire continent of Australia and New Zealand.
June 2015: I joined a National Geographic Expedition to visit the island of Cuba, and in August I flew to China, Tibet and Hong Kong to diversify my portfolio.
2016: Traveled to Bermuda on a cruise, where I completed the "Headshot Intensive" and "Illuminating The Face" workshops with Peter Hurley. That summer I visited the Pacific Northwest - Portland, Seattle, Victoria and Vancouver
August 2017: I went to Poland, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, France and Germany.
June 2017: I accompanied Circus Sarasota & Sailor Circus to Washington D.C. for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, attended a portrait/lifestyle photo workshop in North Carolina, and traveled to Poland, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and Germany on my Walkabout 2017.
June 2018: I traveled to Iceland for a landscape photography workshop. On completion I flew to Bergen in Norway and spent a couple of weeks visiting Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Hamburg.

I'm a member of the P.P.A., the Professional Photographers of America.
August 2018: I was honored by PPA by having one of my landscape photos, "Santa Madalena" selected from over 5000 entries in its International Photographic Competition for the prestigious "Loan Collection" book. The photo was subsequently on the cover of "Photographer Magazine" in May 2019.
June 2019: "Yellowstone Wildlife Safari" with "Backcountry Journeys'.
December 2019: Antartica/Patagonia/Buenos Aires.
March 2020 - ? The pandemic.
All events canceled, so I decided to offer people “Coronicals”, a short “drive-by” photo session at a low cost that would best describe how they are spending this horrendous period. I post the photos on my Facebook page and in a SmugMug gallery, and send the people high-res versions of the photos as keepsakes.

You can find all my photos at http://cliffroles.smugmug.com!