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Biography

Robin Schwartz

Robin Schwartz's photographs are held in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art, The National Museum of Art, Washington, D.C., The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Chrysler Museum of Art, The Bibliotheque Nationale and The Museum Folkwang, Germany among other institutions.

The Aperture Foundation published Schwartz's third monograph, Amelia's World, edited by Tim Barber. Images from this series were exhibited recently at The New York Photography Festival in Brooklyn. Two earlier monographs of Schwartz's photographs are: LIKE US: Primate Portraits, 1993 and Dog Watching, 1995. Aperture offers two of Schwartz's photographs in their Limited Edition Photographs.

Schwartz's photographs have appeared in The New York Times, O Magazine, FADER Magazine, Juxtapoz Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, Interview, The Photo District News and abroad: Marie Clair (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mexico), and H Magazine, Spain.

She has worked on assignment for Life and Sports Illustrated Magazines. Schwartz's photographs are included in over forty books, most recently, HIJACKED, a survey of photographers from Australia and the USA. Work from the Primate Series was featured in two editions of The Aperture Foundation and The Chrysler Museum of Art publication Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers on Their Art, 2004 and The Play of the Unmentionable, an installation by Joseph Kosuth, At The Brooklyn Museum / New Press, 1992.

Schwartz earned a Master of Fine Arts in Photography from Pratt Institute. She received New Jersey Council on the Arts Fellowships in 1985 and 1990. Schwartz is a recipient of a 2009 Lead Academy award for primate photographs published in Dummy Magazine, Berlin.

Robin Schwartz is an assistant professor in photography at William Paterson University and lives in New Jersey with her husband, Robert Forman, daughter, Amelia and companion animals.

"Animals are the passion and obsession that fuel my imagination. The boundary line separating people and animals has always been blurred for me, and perhaps because of that, I try to develop a dialogue with my subjects, whatever their species. My goal while photographing is to show each animal as a unique individual. Eye contact is an important factor in the portraits, representing my subjects' conscious response to me and our encounter. Photography records these memories. My connection with animals has guided my work and life. I have found great humanity, love, respect, adventure and comfort in their company."