For over 50 years, photography has been his medium of artistic exploration, shaped by a career
that spans decades . While he began as a fashion photographer, the work he shares today
represents a deeply personal evolution—images created outside of his commercial work pursuing
his love of photography in of itself in its simplest form possible. His photographs, predominantly
black-and-white, reflect a lifelong engagement with the unpredictable and transformative nature
of the medium using all the tools of the day to not follow the rules but rather intentionally
breaking them to create a recognisable style that runs through his work from the 70’s till now.
In the early years of his career, he worked exclusively with film of course and the choice of film
and the way he’s processed and printed the print was tantamount to the unique style of his tonal
ranges as well as the use of focus, grain and contrast to achieve the style he carries forward till
today. His work is not about recording reality but about creating an aesthetic experience using his
subjects as another element in his process.

Rob is one of the few photographers that still hand prints all of his own prints in his 7000 square
foot studio which he has had for over 38 years and is a testament to his love of “touching” every
print from start to finish because every step is an opportunity to express his work in a unique way
making his prints unique as well.

In addition to my work as a photographer, he has been deeply committed to fostering creativity
and innovation in others as a founder and of several major art institutions in the United States,
including Portfolio Center and Creative Circus. These schools have been platforms for cultivating
the next generation of artists and creative thinkers, which remains a vital part of his legacy having
graduated over 6000 creatives in the fields of Art Direction, Copywriting, Illustration and Graphic
Design and of course Photography

To sum up his visceral approach these are the words he wrote for his artist statement of his last
retrospective solo show Fifty Years Of One Eye Shut.

I hold my breath so not to cause my camera to shake.I close my left eye asI place the camera to my
right eye.I contort my body to stabilize the camera.I capture an image with desperate knowledge
that everything in my viewfinder can change in a 30th of a second like life itself.It’s my eye that I
trust.Click.

Rob Brinson