Born in India and raised in America, Robin Cracknell moved to London in 1987 after a season in Milan where he had been shooting fashion photography. Once in London, increasingly disillusioned and frustrated with the conventions of fashion work, it was his portfolio of personal work that led to a decade of commissions from publishers and art directors for posters, magazine covers and over 300 book jackets. His technique of combining cinematography with traditional still photography and various mixed media came about from spending many of those years killing time in the ICA projection booth, watching obscure movies and gathering up the random cuttings of discarded film which later became the new 'emulsion' for his work.
After unexpectedly becoming a single father in 1997, Robin refused commissions for eight years to concentrate solely on raising his son. In September 2006, a series of photographs documenting this period was selected for the top 10 of 12,000 artists on Saatchi Art for a show curated by readers of The Guardian as well as noted gallery owners, critics and artists. Robin's work was personally nominated by sculptor Marc Quinn. Shortly thereafter, these photographs and notebooks from that period became his first solo exhibition entitled 'The Camera Suture' at The Whitecross Gallery in London. Since then, his work has been widely published and exhibited including, notably, Eyemazing Magazine, The Michael Hoppen Gallery in London and a solo show at Sous Les Etoiles in New York. A selection of his notebooks is featured in the acclaimed 2014 Thames and Hudson publication, ‘Photographers’ Sketchbooks’ with further work from his 'Childhood' series in Thames and Hudson's 'Family Photography Now' published in Spring 2016.
Robin Cracknell's work is in various private collections internationally as well as The National Portrait Gallery in London, The Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Fundacion Privada Sorigue, a museum of contemporary art in Lleida, Spain.
He has participated in numerous prestigeous exhibitions all over the world including Paris, London, New York and Tokio. He has also been featured in numerous publications, regarding design, photography and much more.
