Rod Dresser, 1933-2011

Photo by Abe Aranow

California photographer Rod Dresser, the husband of longtime dealer Margaret Weston of the Weston Gallery in Carmel, died on October 25. Dresser began his photographic career late in life, as a special photographic assistant in Ansel Adams’s studio. A landscape photographer, he was also a commercial photographer whose clients included Apple Computer, Harvard University, and Union Bank. Dresser also served as business manager for the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust and continued to photograph and conduct workshops. In 2002, he published the monogram Artist’s Choice (Limited Editions), and his photographs are represented in such collections as the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Monterey Museum of Art, and in many private collections. Dresser attended the United States Naval Academy, graduating in 1956 with a degree in pyrotechnical engineering, and served in the Navy. After resigning from the Navy, he ran the family construction business for years, until he decided to make his passion his career and turned to photography full time. Donations can be made in his name to the Wounded Warrior Project, or to the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association.