Jack Robinson (photographer)

Jack Robinson, Jr.
Occupation	Photographer, Designer

Jack Robinson, Jr. (September 18, 1928 – December 15, 1997) was an American photographer and stained glass designer. Robinson was freelance photographer for Vogue and The New York Times from the 1950s to the early 1970s before he left New York to return home to the American South and pursue a career as a stained glass designer.

Jack Robinson, Jr. was born in Meridian, Mississippi on September 18, 1928 to Jack Robinson, Sr. and Euline Jones Robinson. The family soon moved to Clarksdale, Mississippi, where Jack attended Clarksdale public school and graduated in 1946. In Clarkesdale Robinson is said to have been somewhat shy and reclusive, often choosing to stay at home and paint and draw rather than socialize with peers. It was during those years that he began to develop a talent for photography. In 1946 Robinson left Clarksdale to attend Tulane University in New Orleans, initially planning to pursue a career in medicine.

It was in New Orleans that Robinson began his career in photography. Much of his early work was shot in the French Quarter where he documented street scenes and vibrant nightlife. He frequented Dixie's Bar of Music, a Bourbon Street club which was an epicenter of the New Orleans gay community in the 1950s and 1960s, and hangout of artists and writers such as Lyle Saxon, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, and Gore Vidal. During this period he refined his talent as a photographer, capturing portraits of notable figures of the southern Bohemia art and culture scene in New Orleans, and documenting the gay community's involvement in Mardi Gras.

In 1954 Robinson traveled to Mexico with Betty Parsons, the famous New York art dealer, and photographed scenes of Mexican life. At Parsons' encouragement, he moved to New York in 1955 to pursue a career in fashion photography. He was quickly recognized as an emerging talent and was sought out by top designers in the fashion industry. In 1959 he shot his first major cover for a fashion special for Life Magazine. In the late 1950s he began free-lancing for The New York Times Magazine under style editor Carrie Donovan. His relationship with Donovan proved to be important for Robinson. When she left the magazine in 1965 to work for Vogue, she brought Robinson with her.

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