Robert Gumpert is a California-based photographer with extensive international experience, documenting social issues and institutions, including service and industrial work, jails and the criminal justice system, and emergency rooms and paramedics. His collaborative Take A Picture/Tell a Story project in the San Francisco County jails. exchanges inmates’ portraits for their stories. He has also created abstract art from the textures and colors of the bridges, walls, highway supports and fallen leaves of London and San Francisco. Robert’s forthcoming book, Division Street, will be released by Dewi Lewis Publishing early in 2022.
On episode 170, Robert discusses, among other things:
- The Kyle Rittenhouse verdict
- The geography of San Franciso
- The history of the tech financial boom in S.F.
- How he came to pursue the Division Street project
- Quitting his long-term gig and having to relearn how to shoot
- How his prison project, Take A Picture/Tell a Story came about
- His interest in recording audio
- Some of the stories he was told
- Internet criticism
Referenced:
Website | Twitter | Division Street book
“It’s not that hard to get people’s trust. If you do what you say you’re gonna do, and you treat people like human beings, people are gonna trust you.”