Marc Rogoff

I originally trained as a fashion designer and spent a significant portion of my career managing and developing clothing brands.

At five, I picked up my first Polaroid camera, and throughout my fashion career, I’ve taken countless photos. Feeling a need for a change, I decided to make photography my career. 

My fashion background has been incredibly helpful. I understand how garments should look in a final image and how best to sell them. Now, I specialise in fashion, advertising, and portraiture, and I’m exploring fine art print sales with my personal work. 

I strive to create images with a narrative that leaves more questions than answers. This emotionally engages viewers more than straightforward fashion shots, although I do include those too. 

My equipment varies greatly depending on the shoot.

Here’s my most used day-to-day  gear: 

Manfrotto 055 ProB tripod – my old trusty heavyweight. 

Manfrotto MHXpro-3w head – great for locking off shots.

Manfrotto 486RC2 Ball head 

Peak Design travel tripod carbon fibre – my go-to travel tripod, which is super light

Sekonic L1358 light meter – essential for good exposures with flash.

For studio work and higher-resolution output, I use a Hasselblad X1D II 50C camera body. I  absolutely love what I get out of this camera, the colours and dimensionality are supreme.

I haven’t upgraded to the latest yet, but I probably will. 

These lenses cover all my medium format shooting needs and are flawless:

Hasselblad  X1D 21mm

Hasselblad X1D 80mm

Hasselblad X1D 135mm

Hasselblad X1D 35-75mm

For travel, casual shooting, and some fashion work in inclement weather, I use an Olympus system. Some photographers might scoff at this, but I find the Four Thirds system offers several advantages, including its size and ruggedness, as well as superb lenses.

My current setup includes an Olympus OM-1 Mark II and a collection of lenses over the years,  such as the Olympus 12-40 f/2.8, Olympus 12mm, Olympus 40-150 f/2.8, Olympus 45mm  f/1.2, Olympus 25mm f/1.2, Olympus 75mm f/1.8, Olympus 17mm f/4, Olympus 300mm f/1.4, and Samyang 7.5mm f/3.5. 

For Wet Plate photography, I use a Deardorff large-format vintage bellows camera. I also have an unknown 320mm brass projector lens and a Voigtländer Helier 36 cm f/4.5 lens,  which I believe was used for aircraft reconnaissance. It’s a formidable lens. 

I own several film cameras, of which I’ve shown two here. I occasionally use them, but plan to shift more of my work back to film.

The ones in the photo are the Nikon F100 with the Nikon 105mm f/2.8 lens for portraits, and the trusty Nikon 50mm f/1.4 for environmental shots.

I also have the Olympus OM 4TI with the Olympus 135mm f/2.8 for more compression and the Olympus 50mm f/1.4. 

I’m considering buying a Hasselblad medium-format film kit, but I’m currently using this Yashica 24 to good effect.

I also use the iPad Pro on most shoots, especially when attached to the Hasselblad.

Not shown here are various Profoto lights and modifiers, a MacBook Pro M2, and a DJI Neo 2 drone. 

I use a variety of bags for my kit, mostly Peak Design and I carry a Colour Checker Passport, a zip case full of storage cards, the Nikon Trigger release for Profoto lights, an  Expodisc for accurate white balance, spare batteries, Lens Pens for cleaning lenses, a  Giottos Rocket Blaster and various lens filters. 

Cameras are tools of expression, and some are more enjoyable than others.

I love the Olympus OMD System for its discretion and ease of use, plus the excellent range of lenses available. It’s my go-to for quick trips, as I can fit a whole selection into a small shoulder bag, while Hasselblad produces the best cameras for image quality and rendering straight out of the camera. 

I’ll continue searching for the best equipment for my needs, but ultimately, the best camera is the one you have in your hand.

Equipment alone doesn’t make a great image; I’ve captured some of my favourite shots with my iPhone! 

Website

2024

I originally trained as a Fashion designer and spent a chunk of my career managing and developing clothing brands. I picked up my first Polaroid camera at age 5 and having taken photos all through my career in fashion I decided I needed a change and decided to make taking photos my career.

My fashion background has helped me enormously in my as I think I understand how garments should look in the final image and how best to “sell” them. I now specialise in Fashion; Advertising and Portraiture and am exploring more fine art print sales with my personal work.

I try to create images with a perceived narrative that leaves more questions than answers. I think this emotionally engages the viewer a bit more than straight forward fashion shots (although I do do these too).

My kit varies dramatically depending on what I am shooting. The equipment represented here is my most used day to day stuff although I use the Hasselblad H system for some types of advertising work where very large files are required and my Olympus OMD – EM1 and Olympus OMD – EM5 2 kit for travel or where I need a lightweight weatherproof system.

The Olympus lenses shown in the image are the superb Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8; Olympus 75mm f/1.8; Olympus 45mm f/1.8; Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95 Nokton and the Olympus 50mm f/2 macro. I love all these lenses as the image quality is superb from all of them.

My day to day system is based on the Nikon D810 and as a backup the Nikon D800 and Nikon D750.

I really use a wide variety of lenses depending on what I am doing – I do love wide angles which capture more of the environment such as the supremely sharp Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 although it is a tricky lens to utilise as its so wide. My most used lens is the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 which is just the most superb tool. It is generally sharp throughout the range and has great everyday focal lengths.

The other Nikon lenses in the photo are the Nikon 50mm f/1.4; for portraits, I love the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 for its creamy out of focus areas and nice contrast. and wonderful edge to edge sharpness of the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 as well as the Nikon 35mm f/1.4.

Other things in my bag are the Manfrotto 190XB tripod; ball head and lever head; Color Checker Passport; tons of Storage cards in zip case; Trigger release, Expodisc for accurate white balance in difficult circumstances; spare batteries; Lens Pens (clean lenses); Black rapid shoulder strap; Giottos Rocket Blaster; Sekonic L358 Light meter and various filters.

As far as bags go I have at least 10 bags (used for different jobs) and I continue to try to find the ideal bag. The two that get the most use are the superbly designed Manfrotto MB MP-RL-70BB Pro Roller Bag and the Gura Gear Battaflae backpack.

Cameras are tools of expression and some are more fun than others… I love the Olympus OMD System for its inconspicuousness and its ‘pick up and go’ ease as well as the superb variety of lenses available for it. It is my go to camera for any quick trips as I can fit an entire selection of lenses in a small shoulder bag.

I will keep looking for cameras that do the best job for what I require and am now looking into shoot daguerreotype for personal and fine art work. I am fascinated with the process which is the complete antithesis to digital.

www.marcrogoff.com

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