Robert Weingarten
graduated from Baruch College in 1962 with a degree in finance. For
the next 30 years he pursued a career in finance and served as CEO and
chairman of several financial institutions. His first and most abiding
passion from youth was photography, which he pursued over all those
years, as time would permit. At the age of 54 he decided to become
fully committed to his photographic art.
Weingarten’s work has been featured in more than 60 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 18
museums, including the J. Paul Getty Museum, Metropolitan Museum of
Art, Whitney Museum of American Arts, Corcoran Gallery of Art,
Smithsonian Institution, National
Gallery of Australia, and George Eastman House International Museum of
Photography and Film.
Artist's Statement
Henri Cartier Bresson has
spoken of the "decisive moment" in creating a photo-journalistic
image; a unique instant that is different from any other, and captured
for posterity in a fraction of a second.
When one thinks of landscape photography, it is perceived of in much
more languorous terms; slowly executed, contemplative, still. But this
is usually not the case. Though the preparation can be hours, days or
longer, with the light and mood constantly changing and evolving,
there is indeed a "decisive moment" that captures the essence of a
landscape.
My images try to at once reflect the timelessness of the landscape,
and the fleeting nature of a particular confluence of light and
conditions that render a dramatic and signal moment; a moment in which
I try to capture a three dimensional world with all the senses of
being there - the sights, the sounds, the smells, the feel of the air
- onto a two dimensional plane - a still image - with the hope that
the ultimate viewer will experience what I felt.
It has been asked whether a photographic image is a window or a
mirror. Does it show you simply what the photographer saw or does it
also give you insight into the emotions of the image maker? I hope my
images do both.
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