Robert Burrill – Featured Artist

Robert Burrill was born in Washington D.C. and was raised in sunny California where he was inspired at an early age by the magic of Walt Disney and his fathers frequent use of his camera. He became involved in photography in 1969 when he first instructed high school students and wrote the school’s curriculum entitled “Four Views on Photography”. Two years later, in 1971, he completed his masters degree in film (as a graphic art form) and extended his teaching to Adult Education. Realizing that experience is the best teacher, Burrill secured a number of commercial accounts producing a comprehensive “professional” portfolio. Having mastered cinematography, Burrill turned his new creative tool toward his photographic teacher-colleagues and produced a series of film vignettes on local master photographers to share with his students. This list includes Morley Baer, Ruth Bernhard, David Cavagnaro, Steve Crouch and Al Weber. Then, in 1984 Burrill worked in partnership with Ruth Bernhard to complete her feature length autobiographic film entitled, Illuminations: Ruth Bernhard, Photographer. The film premièred in 1989 at the Kabuki theater in San Francisco and on local PBS station KQED in 1990. Over the years, Burrill’s vision was greatly sharpened, his technique refined with exceptional emphasis on composition and historical importance. Today he is busy digitally printing his own fine art photographs, wrote two books on local history, and makes and distributes films in DVD depicting the magic of art and the creative process.