Robert Polidori  (Canadian, 1951) 

Robert Polidori (Canadian, b.1951) is a photographer who loves to photograph architectural works and the surrounding environment. Polidori was born in Montreal, Canada, and moved to the United States when he was ten years old. In 1969, Polidori got a job as assistant to New York filmmaker Jonas Mekas (American, b.1922) of Anthology Film Archives. He helped the filmmaker produce several avant-garde films during the early 1970s. Polidori attended the State University of New York at Buffalo, graduating with an MA in 1980. He developed his major interest in still photography thereafter.

Polidori''s photographs tend to depict city places almost lost from view, bringing them to life with a certain captivating magic that makes his photographs unique. Most people believe the analytical nature of Polidori''s works stems from pre-Renaissance and Renaissance perspectives, and that this effect is achieved by the artist''s utilization of the nature of the modern camera lens, which brings a high level of detail into focus. Polidori has been involved in his share of controversies, especially in blogs and other online media. A good example of this is the criticism he received from New Orleans photographer William Greiner (American, b.1957) in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Polidori had photographed a dead victim of the hurricane, and several of his photographs depicting other devastating effects of Katrina aroused controversy when they were used commercially in Brazil.

Polidori has been involved in the publication of several books of photography, notably Metropolis (2005), After The Flood (2006), and Robert Polidori: Parcours Museologique Revisite (2009). He has participated in a number of exhibitions in locations such as the CEPA Gallery, in Buffalo, NY, in 1979, the Galerie Jaques Gordat, in Paris, France, in 1991, the Nicholas Metivier Gallery, in Toronto, in 2005, and Pripyat and Chernobyl, Galerie Camera Work, in Berlin, Germany, in 2011. Some famous examples of his photographs includeMareb, Yemen (1994), Temple Keeper, Varanasi, India (1998), and Yazd, Iran, No 2 (1999). Polidori is represented by the Edwynn Houk Gallery, in New York, NY, and he is a staff photographer for The New Yorker. Polidori has been the recipient of several awards including the World Press Award in 1998 and the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Magazine Photography in 1999 and 2000. Polidori became an American citizen in 2009 and now lives and works between Paris, France and New York.