Harold Ross was born in 1956 into a military family and grew up in New Mexico and Germany. His parents took him on outings almost every weekend—hiking in the desert, camping in the mountains, and exploring castles and old gardens. These experiences left a deep impression on him. When Harold Ross was a teenager, his family moved back to the United States, where he began to develop an interest in photography. In 1978, he graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art. He then set up his own photography studio and studied unusual light-and-shadow painting techniques, which he incorporated into his photographic work.