Rita Crane

Seeing through the eye of a camera was my main passion in high school - not surprisingly - since my father Ralph Crane was a notable Life Magazine photographer for over thirty years. Those teen years behind a single lens reflex and the hours spent in the darkroom experimenting with wet printing techniques for black & white photography taught me skills that now translate naturally into modern photography’s digital technology.

Having spent much of my childhood overseas I graduated from UCLA in History and Art History and traveled extensively - through France, Switzerland, Germany, Tahiti, to Los Angeles, New York City, the American Southwest, the Rocky Mountain front range -- partly because of my father’s profession and partly because I caught travel fever from him - wanting to see the world.

My art education – aside from university studies - has included years of drawing, designing, and hands on art projects. Under the guidance of Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche, I made stained glass windows for the entrance pagodas to the beautiful temple at Odiyan, a Tibetan Buddhist retreat center in the coastal hills of Sonoma County, California. A Pueblo Indian jeweler taught me lapidary and silversmithing in New Mexico, and later a partner and I designed and hand built an authentic Territorial Style adobe home complete with vigas, tilework, and kiva fireplaces in the colorful Rio Grande Valley near Albuquerque.

With Peter Temple I founded Denali Crystal, a nationally known crystal glass sculpture company whose clients included Toyota, Pacific Bell, M.I.T., 3M Corporation, Tibetan Nyingma Meditation Center and countless private collectors. Having worked in various mediums it’s been a special delight to return to my first love – photography. I credit my father for the sensitivity and excitement with which I look at the world, and thank my mother – who was truly a lover and supporter of the fine arts.