Robert Pennington
A social documentary photographer, filmmaker and educator, Pennington received his BFA in Film/Television from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. His work in media arts has taken him throughout the US, South Pacific, Europe, South Asia and Latin America. Early in his career, Pennington worked as an editor and would later produce and direct. His editorial work has been shown at Cannes, Sundance and the Berlin and Tribeca Film Festivals. His directorial debut, Polynesian Power, a documentary that chronicles the ascent of two Samoan athletes to the NFL, premiered on ESPN and subsequently aired on PBS. Pennington has produced and edited projects for HBO, Disney, Telemundo and numerous advertising agencies. He has also worked in various educational systems for over a decade teaching in New Zealand, Latin America and the United States, most recently as a Teaching Artist in New York City. 2014 marked a shift in Pennington’s artistic focus when he began to work exclusively in photography. OUTLIERS, a photographic essay in six parts, is an ongoing work that explores the many faces of marginalization. and its impact on the human condition. Completed works from OUTLIERS have been exhibited in the United States and South America: REFUGEE CRISIS (2015) documents the unimaginable wave of mass migration at the height of the crisis throughout Europe; ZERO (2016) examines life after displacement for the victims of Colombia’s 60-year civil war, still one of the highest internally displaced populations in the world at 7.9 million; and the on-going pinhole project WE \ˈwē\: I and the rest of a group that includes me (2017) present-day environmental portraiture of immigrants in America. In 2018 Pennington returned to live action and began work on TWIST, Tales from America 21c., a social documentary series featuring everyday Americans from all corners of the United States. The series is one-part road trip, one-part celebration of Americana and one-part – sobering examination of 21c America and its people. Pennington continues to fundraise and develop the final three installments of OUTLIERS: TWIST, Tales from America 21c.; LOOKING FOR SOLOMON; and TWO NATIONS. He is currently in post-production on Tales from America 21c. He lives and works from his home in the Catskill Mountains of New York.
You can learn more about Pennington's career here.