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 Jack
Robinson, Jr. was born in Meridian Mississippi on September
18, 1928 to Jack Robinson, Sr. and Euline Jones. He grew up
in Clarksdale Mississippi, the literal heart of the Mississippi
Delta. Jack graduated from Clarksdale High School in 1946. He
attended Tulane University in New Orleans. In 1950 He began
his professional career in photography. His early work captured
the charm of the French Quarter and documented the nightlife
there. He photographed the Mardi Gras festivities. He went to
Mexico in 1954 where he captured old Mexico in large and medium
format photographs. In 1955 Jack moved to New York where he
quickly became noted for his fashion photography and was sought
out by many of the top designers and others in the fashion industry.
By 1959 he had a cover shot for a fashion special for "Life"
magazine. He worked with fashion maven Carrie Donovan at the
"New York Times" until 1965.
Jack traveled to Europe on occasion to photograph the great
design houses of the day. When Carrie went over to "Vogue" Jack
followed with his freelance work where he photographed both
fashion and celebrities. Jack was published in "Vogue" over
500 times from 1965 through 1972. In 1967 "US Camera" did a
feature story on Jack's work for "Vogue's Own Boutique", a monthly
feature that utilized celebrities as models in various boutiques
around New York. The article reprinted shots Jack had done of
Baby Jane Holzer, Tom Wolfe, Sonny and Cher and Julie Christy.
The Vogue section was the brainchild of the legendary Diana
Vreeland,  Editor-in-Chief
of "Vogue". Jack was her personal favorite and in fact it was
Jack whom she chose to do her own portrait.
In 1974, about a year after Jack left New York, "Vogue" mounted
a retrospective of "50 Years of Women in Vogue". "Newsweek"
magazine covered this show with a two-page spread that featured
six photographs, one by Avedon, two by Irving Penn, one by De
Hoyningen-Huene', one by Edward Steichen and one by Jack Robinson.
It is clear that by the early 1970's Jack had established himself
as one of the more important photographers in the world but
suffered a malaise that would, during the rest of his life,
preclude additional recognition. Jack's personal life was a
challenge. He was a classic tormented eccentric genius from
the Mississippi Delta like so many others before him: Faulkner,
Tennessee Williams, most musicians, yes, including Elvis. Jack
turned to drugs and alcohol to escape. The fact that he was
gay at a time when it was not socially acceptable caused suffering
in Jack. He also ran in the fast lane of Warhol and company.
That he eventually succumbed to the temptations found in the
very social scene he was photographing should be no surprise.
As you read his daybooks and job assignments you can see the
deterioration of his life. Jobs dwindled: he had to move from
his Toney studio address on 11 East 10th Street, sell his beloved
Steinway and finally in December of 1972 retreat to Memphis.
He was broken and addicted to alcohol. He  was
taken in by Audrey Stroll, a long time friend who got him into
AA and got him back on his feet. Jack stopped all commercial
work and took up painting. He soon took a job as assistant to
noted artist Dorothy Sturm designing stained glass windows for
churches at one of the 10 largest stained glass studios in the
country, Laukauff Stained Glass. After his stint at Laukauff
Studio he joined another glass studio where he spent the last
year of his life doing water color and pen and pencil designs
for the stained glass windows for the chapel at St. Jude Children's
Research Hospital where Danny Thomas is buried. He fell ill
in November 1997 and went to see his doctor. Mr. Robinson died
of cancer within a month of that visit.
Though Jack Robinson's professional photography career spanned
only 17 years they were pivotal years in modern history. Jack
was there to document in fine art photography the social changes
that occurred in the 60's and early 70's as reflected by fashion,
art, the written word, the stage and silver screen, and probably
most important of all, the music. Jack photographed virtually
every musician that we think of when we think Woodstock and
the Summer of Love. Jack did album covers and fashion shoots.
He photographed the Nixon White House, then Dennis Hopper of
"Easy Rider", the unbridled decadence of the 60's in New York
and unequaled elegance of Jacquelyn Kennedy in full formal regalia.
Jack captured what is arguably the absolute zenith of modern
fashion as given us by Pucci, Cardin, St. Laurent, Blass and
the like. But he also showed us the casual look that was to
become and sometimes what was not to become (electric clothes
by Diana Dew). From the "Beat Generation", as an insider and
a participant, Jack Robinson captured on film what the world
will remember for generations, as the 60's.
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