About

Meet Renata

When I was 10 years old, my mother and I spent a vacation week hiking in the mountains in Eastern Slovakia. I documented the whole trip with a borrowed camera. Right then I knew, the camera and I would be inseparable. The true value of those photos only occurred to me a few years later after my mother had passed away in a car crash. As I grew older, her expressions in those pictures took different meanings to me. Even though I'll never see her again, I feel in some ways we still grow together.

I have been fascinated by the power of imagery since and decided to give it a more serious try. In 1984 I graduated from a four-year program in drawing and painting in the Czech Republic (my native homeland) and later received a degree in Graphic Design in the U.S. Throughout my career as a graphic designer, my life-long passion for photography has continued to drive intensive self study, including workshops from celebrity photographer Andrew Eccles, National Geographic's Bob Krist and Nevada Wier. The fusion of photography and graphic design in my work is essential to creating beautiful images as well as communicating ideas effectively.

My professional experience has come not only from serving as a staff photographer and graphic designer for a publishing company but also from independently working with clients ranging from small businesses to large corporations. I have worked on a variety of projects including fashion and product photo shoots, editorial feature shoots, and international travel photography assignments. My work has appeared in magazines, books, catalogs and advertisements and my personal work has been displayed in venues around Portland, OR and Charles University in Prague. My business experience along with artistic talent, multi-cultural background and marketing expertise has given me the ability to provide versatile, creative services on a high professional level.