ROBERT PALUMBO
I’m a photographer and filmmaker with a deep and evolving commitment to the expressive power of imagery. Since the early 2000s, I’ve built parallel careers in film and television producing/directing and fine art photography. I am an Emmy winner and multiple nominee, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in Photography.
PHOTOGRAPHY
As a still photographer, I've always been drawn to the kinds of human faces that reveal the cracks and chasms of life just below the surface. The faces of strivers, the bruised and battered, quiet warriors, the haunted. There’s something about the mix of hope and hardship, resilience and self-invention that draws me in. When creating portraits, I focus on the complex nuance of the encounter itself that can lead to revelation of character.
My earliest influences include John Deakin, Richard Avedon, Shomei Tomatsu, and American police mugshot photographs, image traditions that capture presence and identification over perfection. Over the years, my work has appeared in The New York Times, National Geographic, Du, Yellow Rat Bastard, Vice, and others. I’ve also worked with commercial clients, including Nike, the NFL, and Gallimard Books.
By the 2010s, my focus began to shift. While portraiture still remained a central thread, I became increasingly absorbed by the textures and layered surfaces of the natural world, textures that oftem echo the skin and faces I had spent years portraying. The human face carries history and memory in fine lines. rough texture, and cracks. Landscapes, and the infinite variety of the natural world, do the same. I began thinking of nature as a subject with its own interior, sentient life. I photographed Alaskan glaciers while working for National Geographic, the forest floor, and the clash of machines and nature.
This shift in subject was accompanied by a deeper exploration of process. I experimented with materials that mirrored the tactile qualities I was photographing: traditional Japanese papers, Japanese kakishibu and indigo inks, and layered pigment transfers. These choices weren’t purely aesthetic, but allow me to physically embed fragility and impermanence into the work itself. I once sought to capture emotional depth in a single expression. I now search for it in tonal gradation, surface tension, and the slow accumulation of visual detail.
In 2018, I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare and incurable blood cancer. The illness was traced back to toxic dust exposure from the months I lived near the World Trade Center following the 9/11 attacks. That diagnosis, and the ongoing reality of treatment and living with an invisible, unpredictable disease, has been transformative, profoundly influencing my approach to life and work in ways that I try to understand and communicate every day.
Full photography/fine art CV available upon request.
FILM /TV
In film and television, my work has focused on long-form documentary storytelling, often centered on complex, high-stakes subjects—crime, environmental crisis, human behavior, and the systems that shape them. I’ve worked across formats, from premium documentary series to investigative specials, in roles ranging from producer and executive producer to director and cinematographer—shaping projects from development through production, and often working directly in the field.
This strand of my career has taken me around the world, including to Sudan, India, Ethiopia, Japan, China, Indonesia, and across much of Europe and the U.S.
I’ve contributed to and helped shape series for HBO, Showtime, National Geographic, CNN, Sundance Channel, Peacock, and others. My credits include projects like Years of Living Dangerously and Mars, which combine cinematic storytelling with scientific and environmental inquiry, as well as long-running series such as Wicked Tuna and This Is Life with Lisa Ling, where character-driven narratives unfold over time.
More recently, my work has leaned into investigative and cultural subject, examining crime, media, and the shifting boundaries of authorship and truth. Projects like Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy, Cocaine Bear: The True Story, World’s Most Notorious Killers, and Copy+Paste+Steal reflect an ongoing interest in how stories are constructed, contested, and consumed.
Whether I’m directing or producing, my approach is rooted in the same instincts that guide my photography: close observation, patience, and a focus on character. Even in large-scale productions, I’m ultimately interested in how people reveal themselves over time, under pressure, in contradiction, and in moments where the narrative isn’t fully resolved.
IMDB Full film/TV credits: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0658869/?ref_=up_rvi_i_6
IG: @rbtpalumbo
Email: rbtpalumbo@gmail.com