John V. Robinson
| John V. Robinson | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 9, 1960 |
| Occupation | Writer, speaker, photographer |
| Alma mater | UC Berkeley |
| Genre | Construction, folklore, pop culture |
| Notable works |
Spanning the Strait: Building the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge. Bridging the Tacoma Narrows. Bay Area Iron Master: Al Zampa. |
John V. Robinson (born 1960) is an American writer and photographer who specializes in photographing heavy construction work with a focus on bridge construction and the men and women who do the work. Robinson goes onto construction sites and does detailed photo essays of the iron workers, pile drivers, carpenters, laborers, and crane operators who do this demanding and dangerous work. He frequently collects oral histories of the workers.
Robinson also does freelance photography work and his construction shots are frequently published in San Francisco Bay Area newspapers, used in calendars, and used in advertising campaigns of construction and engineering firms. John Robinson's photo-essays on bridge construction have been published in three books and his articles and photographs regularly appear in professional and trade journals like The Ironworker and Engineering News Record.
John Robinson was educated at U.C. Berkeley where he took a B.A. in English Literature in 1995. He went on to San Francisco State University where in 1998 he earned a Master's Degree in English Literature. After finishing graduate school in 1998 Robinson begin teaching at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, CA. Currently Robinson teaches at Las Positas College in Livermore CA and Cal State East Bay in Hayward CA.
While a student at U.C. Berkeley Robinson developed in interest in the folklore of working men and women. He studied folklore with the Berkeley folklorist Alan Dundes and developed a close friendship with eminent folklorist Archie Green and worked with Green on several projects for the Fund for Labor Culture & History.
He began his study of bridge builders in 1995 by interviewing the famed bridge builder Alfred Zampa who is most notable for being one of the first people to survive falling off the Golden Gate Bridge. Zampa was a charter member of the Half Way to Hell Club, whose members are the men who fell from the Golden Gate Bridge and were saved by the nets. The Zampa interview Robinson collected in 1995 was recently published in the book, Bay Area Iron Master Al Zampa. The recent book also contains the text of the play The Ace written by Isabelle Maynard.
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