artist/photographer/traveller/newyorker/anglophile/doglover

xRobin Blair Riley’s passion for photography began when she was given a Kodak Camera for her 12th birthday. She began shooting landscape scenes of Kentucky ponds and woods with enthusiasm - imagining she was Ansel Adams in Yellowstone with an 8x10 view camera and glass plates.

Robin went on to study photography at University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning. Upon earning an MFA, she moved to New York City to begin a work scholar position with The Aperture Foundation. Sadly, financial circumstances changed and she quickly pivoted to the commercial industry to work as an assistant to professional photographers. From there, she climbed the ranks, working on wonderfully adventurous and diverse shoots - from loading Hasselblad film backs while riding on speeding snowmobiles for LLBean, to digging into pies destined to grace the cover of Bon Appetit.

While working as a photographer's assistant, Robin continued shooting her own fine art, processing medium format film in her Hell’s Kitchen bathtub. The resulting portfolio led to her own assignments shooting travel, food, gardens and portraits. Over the next decade +, Robin shot and was published around the world.

Robin loves exploring experimental and photographic techniques and has a deep interest in art history, especially the work of the Renaissance masters, William Morris, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Julia Margaret Cameron. Like Cartier-Bresson, Robin has found that completely immersing herself into a scene that inspires her, and then waiting patiently for the light & the perfect moment allows her to create an image that draws the viewer in, tells a story and captures a mood. She shoots with antique cameras and blends historical processes with digital tools. In her color work, Robin paints layers by hand which are then combined with negatives or digital files. This work is particularly inspired by Andy Warhol. Her work is in numerous corporate, celebrity and private collections as well as in the United States Library of Congress.

Clients include Canon USA, New York Public Library, Apartment Therapy, Time Out New York, Martha Stewart, Sundance Film Festival, Travel Holiday, Travel and Leisure, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, Proctor & Gamble, McCann Advertising, Garden Design Magazine, Booking.com, Food Arts Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Lord & Taylor, Macy's, NASCAR, United/Continental Airlines, Aerosoles, Reebok, Sherman's Travel, Qantas Airlines, Grey Advertising, Intercontinental Hotels, Sam Adams Boston Brewery, The City of New York, Elle Decor, Departures and many others.

A percentage of each purchase is donated to The Humane Society International.

Any unauthorized reproduction or licensing of these photographs is in violation of U.S. and international copyright law.

Portrait by Brie Passano