RAM Art Photography, an artistic partnership between artists Rodrigo F. Pedrolli and W. Michael Murphree, was formed after the two Art Directors met and realized that their photographs were similar in context and style. They discovered that their mutual love of digital macro photography gave them the perfect vehicle to instantly capture the mood, color and temperament of a given moment in nature. Astonishingly, they each had been visiting the same hidden world.

Michael Murphree was born in Wyoming, but at an early age moved to the small town of West Point, Mississippi. The slow moving south is reflected in his subtle and mellow approach to photography. At an early age Michael's artistic abilities became apparent and he was nurtured by his family and many art teachers. His first accolades came after winning several state art contests and having one of his pictures printed in the local newspapers. At the age of eleven Michael received his first camera and his love of picture taking began. He used b/w imagery of his friends, using Mississippi as a backdrop, for his artistic outlet. He continued to draw and paint, but his love was always photography.

After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, in 1979, Michael moved to New York City to feed on its art culture and abounding energy. Working as an Art Director for small agencies and design studios gave him the opportunity to meet and work with notable composers, musicians and artists from the popular era of the 80's and 90's. He photographed such legends as David Bowie and Chaka Khan. As an Art Director for Musical America,The International Directory of the Performing Arts he worked with many well known figures in the classical performing arts, such as Leonard Bernstein, and their artistic representatives creating promotional advertisements. Michael was the only American allowed to photograph the Russian composer Alfred Schnittke, 1934-1998, for BIS records on his visit to New York City. Michael's photographs have appeared on many classical review magazine covers, such as Fanfare Magazine. He formed his own design studio in 1986 and began shooting product shots allowing him to use his camera in his advertising design ventures.

Many film cameras later and a house in the Catskills with a yard full of flowers, Michael discovered the world of computers and digital photography and new subjects to use for his art. Being technically minded, this new medium intrigued and stimulated his drive to use his photography as an art form again.

"Computer technology gives me the spontaneity I have always needed with the ability to see the world using light and pixels, while macro photography gives me a new world of subjects. The computer is nothing but an electric recorder waiting to be fed information and I use my camera for," Michael says.

Rodrigo Pedrolli was born in Minas Gerais, Brazil, a region ablaze with color and Latin culture. At an early age he discovered his ability to design and create, and the passion to use these gifts as a way of life. "I have always looked at the world with a lust and fascination for ingenuity," he says. Science fiction spurred his imagination while space ships and robots filled his dreams with nights of complex imagery. The ability to draw, sketch and paint allowed an outlet for his emerging creative abilities. Rodrigo would draw, airbrush and paint T-shirts, skills that would be used later in his life and provide an entrance into the graphic design and advertising world.

"I started my career in 1987 as an Art Director for advertising agencies in Belo Horizonte and later in São Paulo." Working with edgy creative directors, talented art directors and witty copywriters in Brazil and here in the United States allowed him the perfect space to grow and hone his own skills winning the Prêmio Colunistas de Propaganda award for art direction 3 years running. While directing other photographers to shoot his visions, his designs and styling for advertising campaigns, Rodrigo's true desire was to be behind the lens of the camera himself releasing the shutter to capture that moment,
his moment.

"I take close up pictures of flowers because I want people to see the small details most of them have not seen before or never thought to look at. It is really incredible to get so close to a subject that it's image becomes almost abstract. I crave the texture and vibrant colors that nature has to offer," he says.