Robert J. Szabo has been a photographer for more than 35 years. His love of history first brought him to Virginia from his native state of Ohio. After several years of involvement with living history groups, he leaned on his own past as a commercial and portrait photographer and embraced the history of photography. He is now immersed in the almost forgotten collodion wet-plate photographic process introduced in 1851. His skill produces modern artistic images using 19th century methods.
Robert's artistic vision enables him to peer through his camera and see a window to the past. Whether an historic scene or a modern image, his work evokes romanticism, yet rests on a sense of strength and stamina. The merging of times seems complete. The camera long ago gave the world a dynamic new view of itself, and his camera today gives us a quiet, soft, reflective present.
Robert has exhibited extensively at historic sites across Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and other sites from Maryland to California with the National Park Service. He has displayed his work for private historical associations in Virginia such as the John Singleton Mosby Heritage Area Foundation, Middleburg Beautification & Preservation, Inc., Aldie Mill, the Waterford Foundation, and Historic Sandusky in Lynchburg.
In April of 2005 one of Robert's images appeared on the cover of National Geographic to accompany an article on the fight to save Civil War battlefields from modern development. His work was displayed on Capitol Hill in conjunction with the National Geographic article. Also in 2005, Robert worked with the History Channel on the series “10 Days that Changed America”, and in August of that year he shot the entire 2006 Jack Daniel's Squires Calendar on location in Lynchburg, Tennessee using the wet plate process. This calendar was sent out to more than 250,000 people worldwide.
Robert’s work has been shown at the Byrne Gallery in Middleburg, Virginia; the Aldie Mill Art Show; the Del Ray Artisans Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia; the Art League Gallery at the Torpedo Factory, Alexandria, Virginia; and the University of Rhode Island. Some of his awards include Best in Show 2000, Best Still Life 2000, 2001 and 2002 at the Waterford Virginia Photography Show. Robert recently relocated from Virginia to Kansas City, Missouri, where he is currently involved with several new projects. His work will appear in the documentary "Bad Blood", a co-production of KCPT Kansas City Public Television and Wide Awake Films, scheduled to air on March 1, 2007. Additional work will appear at the Digital Labrador Gallery in conjunction with the Crossroads Art District First Friday Gallery Walk in Kansas City.
