Todd Ranta has been making images almost as long as he can remember.
He studied photography and accounting at Illinois Wesleyan University. He pursued a career in forensic accounting for thirty-three years. The camera never left.
Todd's grandfather, Charles Mottl, photographed his family from 1935 to the 1980s on 8mm film and in hundreds of still photographs across an American century. Todd learned photography on Charles's last camera, a Kodak Retina, at Illinois Wesleyan. He is now curator of The Charles & Betty Mottl Archive and the third generation behind the lens.
Twenty years at Ranta Ranch in Sunnyvale, Texas. Decades of frames from Iceland to Indonesia, from the Canary Islands to Cambodia, from the Tetons to Tuscany. The road less traveled between them. The road home.
Focus Lost brings a life's work back into focus. Thousands of images, coming into the present.
Forensic accounting taught him to find what a balance sheet won't say. Photography is the same discipline, turned outward: attention to the small detail that carries the larger story.
A pattern reveals itself slowly across the work. Each new image is part of the discovery.
Limited editions. Signed and numbered.
Release planned for late 2026.
For private viewings, collector inquiries,
or notice of the launch: