Robin Bowman: Biography

Robin Bowman is a New York–based photojournalist devoted to documenting social and political issues, both at home and abroad.

After majoring in anthropology at Wheaton College, Bowman studied photography at the Maine Photo Workshops. In 1984, she moved to New York City where she worked at Magnum Photos before pursuing a career as a photojournalist. She now resides in Maine.

She has worked as a freelance editorial photographer for such publications as the Berlin Journal, Fortune, Life, Newsweek, The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, Time, and U.S. News and World Report. She also spent four years as a contract photographer for People.

Her magazine and book projects have taken her to Bosnia, Cuba, Finland, Haiti, Israel, Mexico, Nepal, Rwanda, and South America. For the last five years, Bowman has been interviewing and creating collaborative portraits with teenagers across the United States, which will be published by Umbrage Editions in the fall of 2007.

In 1995, 1996, and 1999, Bowman’s photographs earned awards of excellence from the Communication Arts Photography Annual. She is the recipient of a 2005 W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund Fellowship, and has received several grants from Polaroid. Her photographs have been included in exhibitions worldwide and are part of the International Polaroid Collection.