Professor’s photos recognized in China

E. Brady Robinson, associate professor of the school of visual arts and design, received the grand-prize award of 10,000 renminbi, Chinese currency, in early November at the "American Life" exhibition of the 2011 Lishui Photography Festival in China curated by Larissa Leclair.

"I am a rockstar in China," Robinson said looking back on her accomplishment.

Robinson's submission is titled "Desks as Portraits: An Inside Look at the DC Art World," and it documents the desks of curators, collectors, writers, art critics, dealers, museum directors, artists and other tastemakers in Washington, D.C. The series explores the concept of desks as portraits and social experiment of navigating the D.C. art world.

"There is just something really interesting to me about the idea of someone's desk becoming a portrait and how the items on the desk are juxtaposed and arranged," Robinson said.

Robinson's photography project includes the desks of Karyn Miller, director of visual arts of the Cultural Development Corporation; Leclair, founder of Indie Photobook Library and independent curator; Avi Gupta, photo editor of U.S. News & World Report; William Christenberry, photographer, painter and sculptor; and Ayris Scales, interim director of DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

The main challenges Robinson had to overcome while creating this project were lighting issues, composition and the constraints of time and space. Robinson explained how most people's work areas are indoors and subject to terrible lighting conditions, but working with composition and time and space proved to be far more difficult.

"The subject itself, a desk, is mundane," Robinson said. "The challenge is to make the subject interesting while working within the constraints of time, space and light. This is the challenge."

Robinson used a Canon 5G DSLR to shoot all of her photos that appear in her award-winning series.

"As a photographer, I work quickly. I'm not one to pre-visualize or set up the shoot that is boring to me," Robinson said. "I embrace spontaneity and like to capture life on the fly. Working with a small format camera suits my style of working the best."

At first, Robinson was not planning on creating a series of photographs of desks, but in January when she was asked to photograph headshots at the Flashpoint Gallery for an annual report for the CuDC, an arts nonprofit, she found herself snooping around the rather mundane scene of the work space of Miller, the director of visual arts at the gallery.

This private working area contained everything about Miller's career and to Robinson, that was worthy of a photograph. She explained that one photo shoot led to another, in which she asked for recommendations and names of possible subjects. Further introductions were made and invitations were accepted, which allowed her private access to photograph the workspace of people who are making significant contributions to contemporary art and photography.

"Ultimately, I would love to photograph the desk of William Allman, the curator of the White House," Robinson said. "The Obamas have significantly changed the art collection of the White House. They have purchased many contemporary works from African-American and Asian-American artists. Contemporary art has replaced more traditional 19th-century portraits and landscapes on the walls of the White House. I would love to meet the person in charge of acquisitions at the White House and learn more about the future of the collection. I want to photograph the desk of William Allman."

Along with shooting the White House, Robinson would like to further expand her project nationally and internationally, with the next stops being Miami, New York, Los Angeles and Beijing, and she would also like to have a book published in the next year.

"There are a lot of places I would like to go from here to expand the project...Miami, New York, Los Angeles, Moscow, Mexico City, Hong Kong. China was amazing. It was a trip of a lifetime, and I can't wait to go back," Robinson said. "I've fallen in love with Shanghai and would also like to continue the project in China as well as other markets in the international art world. China loves contemporary photography. It's been a great audience for this project, and I can't wait to go back."