A retrospective illustrating the diversity of
Weingarten’s photography over 5 bodies of work.

Robert Weingarten • The Road Less Traveled

This retrospective complements the High Museum of Art’s exhibition The Portrait Unbound: Photography by Robert Weingarten. It begins with two images from Weingarten’s latest project. Then, in chronological sequence, earlier bodies of work are shown: painterly color landscapes, black and white studies of Amish communities, studies of the character of light, and abstract views of the effect of light in painters’ palettes. The show illustrates Bob Weingarten’s willingness to rapidly expand both his artistic and technical techniques. While some of the work is recorded with film and printed in a traditional darkroom, others push the edges of new digital recording and printing capabilities. There is always a new level of expression-achieved through a disciplined execution using all of the tools available.

Landscape As Symphony – From the first photograph in 1826 to the present, the landscape has been a natural subject for the camera Robert Weingarten’s interpretations reflect his love of the land and his feeling for the painter’s palette His sense for the forms and colors, executed with a keen sense of the environmental conditions of light, temperature and humidity lead to a softness that is almost painterly. These images span the geographic diversity of Italy, the Czech Republic, France and America. They were first shown at the Center for Photographic Art, Carmel in 1999.

Another America – This project captures the simplicity and beauty of a way of life that has been constant for some three centuries. A religious belief that began with the Anabaptist movement at the time of the Reformation, it still emphasizes a sense of humility and family that is apparent in Amish populations in Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin. “Robert Weingarten’s photographs of Amish communities are riveting testaments to the enduring virtues of this group’s spiritual and bucolic lifestyle. His black-and-white images of the pastoral landscape are in perfect accord with the Amish’s profoundly simple faith” – Robert A. Sobieszek, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

6:30 am – Alfred Steiglitz’s statement that no photographer should travel anywhere for a picture if he cannot find one close to home led to this Weingarten project. The result is a remarkable series of diverse colors and forms that transform reality into abstract impressions. The subjects: sky, sea and city were carefully recorded from his home in Malibu, California looking over Santa Monica Bay. Taken over the course of a full calendar year, each photographic exposure was made at the same time of day, at about sunrise. All possible variables with the equipment, film and location were controlled so as to record only the scene created by natural forces.

Palette Series – The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
“. . . his subjects include an art world’s who’s who that includes Brice Marden, Chuck Close, Jasper Johns, Wayne Theibaud, Julian Schnable and Robert Ryman . . . I challenge anyone to go through this show, armed with only a list of participating painters and successfully match up more than a handful of names with the photographs of their palette.” – Michael O’Sullivan/The Washington Post
“. . . they sometimes resemble the striated Rothko paintings, the ominous light rimmed clouds of El Greco or the candy colored California skies of Ed Ruscha . . .” – Randy Kennedy/The New York Times

Featured in this exhibition is the work of Robert Weingarten.

Select this link to view his complete artist page.

Robert Weingarten (1941) At the age of 54 he decided to become fully committed to his photographic art. His Landscapes often showcase repetitive natural form and magnificent hues. The 6:30 AM series, for which Weingarten photographed the same view during the year 2003 from his home in Malibu, Calif., is a perfect example of this style. The 6:30 AM series was featured in a 2005 book of the same title, published by Hatje Cantz, which was Weingarten’s third photography book in two years. The series displays his ability to evoke a sense of natural superiority reminiscent of the Hudson River School painters while exhibiting an Impressionistic sensibility.

Weingarten’s work has been featured in more than 80 exhibitions worldwide, most of them solo exhibitions. He has earned the distinction Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society (FRPS) Bath, England, and his images are in the permanent collections of 30 museums, including the J. Paul Getty Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), Whitney Museum of American Arts, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Australia, George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, and the High Museum of Art. Numerous exhibitions in the United States and Europe have been complemented by six books of his photographs.

Portrait of Henry Aaron

Digital portraiture, a departure from the traditional.
Exhibition: High Museum of Art, Atlanta, January – April, 2010

Robert Weingarten’s photography series The Portrait Unbound represents a bold departure from traditional portraiture. Using layers of imagery that allude to specific interests, achievements or moments within the subject’s life, Weingarten digitally creates large-scale composite images that describe his subjects through biographical rather than physical information. The exhibition at the High Museum, featured twenty-one images that represent notable individuals from the worlds of art, science, politics and sports. Weingarten’s subjects include such icons as Hank Aaron, Buzz Aldrin, Chuck Close, Jane Goodall, Dennis Hopper and Colin Powell.

A short film by Neal Broffman that details Weingarten’s construction of his portrait of Henry Aaron. (running time 3:22).