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Roda’s family is central to the artist’s photographs in both concept and creation. Young Ethan is captured in nearly all of the images, drawing a link to the artist’s childhood. Roda explains, “A camera is used to record one moment of time that hovers between memories and constructed commentaries yet is a documentation of ‘real time’ events for me, my wife Allison and son Ethan…. Although we three are the immediate subjects, the work is filled with metaphorical reverberations of my own memories of childhood and family traditions.” (1) His wife is essential to the process, since she also often releases the shutter. Roda’s way of life and familial customs becomes intrinsic to his photographic process.

In addition to depicting his family, Roda’s images point toward a surrealist sentiment captured in his scenarios which meld familiar domestic scenes and peculiar environments. In particular, a correlation can be drawn to the artist Ralph Eugene Meatyard, who, like Roda, used friends and family members in his work, did not make images from double negatives, and was intrigued with creating otherworldly settings. A signature element of Meatyard’s pictures was the use of masks worn by his models. (2)

In the photograph Untitled #43 (2005), the figure on the left, played by the artist’s wife, is masked seamlessly by a stick with a cutout photo of an older woman wearing glasses attached to its end. The bizarre yet mundane backdrop includes a crude outline of a house structure–a triangle forms the roof and a rectangle represents a chimney. A mirror has been placed within the structure, reflecting the artist who wears a stern facial expression and clasps a frying pan near his chest. The odd surroundings combined with the masked and reflected personas highlight the various identities we assume in society while occupying a dreamlike world.

Several of Roda’s photographs include a mirror, which is used to convey separate realities and varying perspectives on those portrayed. In Untitled #40 (2005), the mirror is situated to the left, capturing only the torso and head of Roda’s wife; curtains frame the foreground. It is understood that she is standing behind the curtains, but can only be seen in the mirror. She looms like an apparition, occupying a supernatural reality, since she does not exist physically, but only as a reflection. Meanwhile, the artist and the boy dwell in a separate reality. In Untitled #65 (2005), Roda’s son is seen in a full-length mirror. He is seated on a stool, wearing boots and shorts, and is peering downward. Although a wooden structure prevents a clear view of the child, we can still see his silhouette just beyond. Instead of a direct view of the boy’s face, the viewer sees only his reflected expression. This use of the mirror gives varying perspectives on the figures and expands space to incorporate what is beyond the immediate view of the lens.

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Roda’s compositions are a chaotic menagerie of symbols and metaphors formed from sculpture, props, costumes, and built environments. The photographs’ erratic physicality is understood through the randomly torn edges, varying tonal values, and irregular drips of photographic chemicals. However, his images are not careless. The lure of photography is the posterity it has maintained to represent reality. Roda subverts this condition by illustrating everyday life as a fusion of constructed and authentic moments as well as identities both masked and disclosed.