Roy Shigley's early camera work, between 1965 and 1975, documents what he sees and feels while living in San Francisco's counter-culture. In 1971 Shigley is awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Fellowship in Photography in recognition of this early 35mm black and white body of work.

During these years his interest in the China and India of his childhood propels him through the Master's program at San Francisco State University. Here he studies the esthetic of Chinese painting applied to photography.

Subsequently, in the summer of 1975 he moves into editorial photography while covering the emerging Silicon Valley technologies for national trade magazines. He is lead photographer for Bank of America’s corporate communications for six years and then serves as manager-photographer for Gabriel Moulin Studio, a third generation portrait studio in San Francisco.

Currently he is mining his early B/W documentary archives for relevant images from the mid-sixties and seventies, noting that forty some years later the young are again facing the bedrock issues of civil rights, the environment, clandestine wars and much more. This time they are working within the system to bring about the promise of change.

Self Portrait Today