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Marc Robin

Photographer.

Marc Robin was born in Paris in 1943. He attended the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles where he studied cinematography, « mise-en-scene », and photography. He was the youngest in his class to receive his diploma in 1965. He then enrolled at the Sorbonne and decided to settle permanantly in Paris. Thanks to a publicity campaign for Molyneux perfumes, he met the director Jean-Gabriel Albicocco (one of the instigators of the Cannes fortnight for film directors). He proposed that Marc should illustrate a book on the film which he was shooting at the time, « The Wanderer » based on the French classic by Alain Fournier. The impressionist images treated in the style of Renoir were the subject of numerous exhibits. He then continued with other full-length movies. He worked for magazines such as Twen and Stern in Germany; the Daily Telegraph in England; Many photo magazines dedicated portfolios and covers to his work such as Photo, Zoom, or Black and White in Australia and Playboy. Preferring to freelance he roamed the world and did many advertising campaigns such as Ilford, Air France International, Charles Jourdan, IBM, Nestle, Coca-Cola, Pierre Cardin and Dior.
In 1979 he was awarded the Grand Prix de l’Affiche (Billboard) for a Jeans campaign. Over the last ten years his interests broadened considerably. His preference was for publicity campaigns involving both films and photos. Amongst others he did Philip Morris International campaigns for several years and with Telefunken achieved the Grand Prix Strategie and a Palme d’Or at the Cannes Festival. Delpire chose him to continue the creation of Cacherel Hommes. Henkel Fa commissioned him to do research for underwater shooting which was awarded a prize by the German Art Directors Club.
In 1989 he began a personal studio research project on the theme « Black and White » which appeared in several exhibits and publications. He did his own black and white prints.
In 1994 he devoted himself to the production of « Mama Africa » a project on dance on which he worked with the best known dance companies (Bill T. Jones, Alvin Ailey, Gruppo Corpo, Bahia...)
In November 1995 he exhibited « Mama Africa » at the Espace Culturel Pierre Cardin in Paris and in the 53 galleries of the FNAC chain in France. This work received much acclaim both from the public and in the media. (press articles, interviews, radio and television). « Shapes alone do not satisfy me. They are cold, motionless; it seems necessary for me to stage them, to breathe life into them. I have to introduce a story and add substance to my subject. What interests me is « la recherche plastique » which is a process of refining the gestures and movements. I want to capture the elegance of those dancers in their primitive beauty, thus it becomes an expression of emotion rather than style through the communion of their body and spirit. » His personal research launched advertising demand directly inspired by his work; His « Private Beach » created in the early 80s allowed him to participate in the creation of an event « Art and Party ». He was involved in the launch of the free TV chain (Premier magazine video) distributed in boutiques and kiosks, on May 15th 1999 in Brussels together with David LaChapelle, David Lynch, (USA) Mariko Mori (Japan) and Emir Kusturica (Serbia). While doing a number of personality shoots for the press he began to produce and direct a series of films for television on « Instant Art » featuring international personalities in the realm of Plastic Art, Literature, Music and Motion Pictures.
Summer 2000, he started almost exclusively underwater shootings for advertising campaigns and personal projects and still is in 2007. A world tour in 2004, brought him to shoot for a client a reportage on characteristics of Montreal, Quebec, San francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Rio de Janeiro, Kyoto, Beijing and Jaipur. Directing a motion picture has always been of a major interest and a goal to him through the writing of a screenplay. This is his major preoccupation at the moment.