When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Since his birth in 1946, Robert B. Taylor has lived in rural Mendocino County, California. He has photographed his native countryside and other Northern California counties for over forty years. Taylor’s adoration for the rural beauty of Mendocino County is rooted in four generations of family history in the area. Introduced to photography by Frank Leavitt, a fellow soldier in the Vietnam War, Taylor was captivated by Leavitt’s respect and excitement for photography. Leavitt informally mentored Taylor in photography and darkroom techniques; and while stationed in Vietnam, Taylor focused his camera on the natural beauty of the landscape.
After the war, Taylor returned to his birthplace, where he built an improvised darkroom with a removable enlarger located in a small bathroom. He was permanently convinced of the power of black-and-white photography to “evoke the spirit of the rural landscape,” to borrow Taylor’s words, after a visit to an exhibition of Ansel Adams’ photographs at Santa Rosa Junior College.
To maximize his technical and artistic acumen, Taylor refined his knowledge through the careful study of Ansel Adams’ technical manuals. He has drawn inspiration from the work of many photographers including Edward Weston, Wynn Bullock, and Paul Caponigro. Taylor photographs in medium and large format, preferring four-by-five and eight-by-ten view cameras to render fine detail. All of the attributes that make Taylor’s photography exceptional—clean composition, emotive content, and impeccable darkroom craftsmanship—are beautifully rendered inRural California1975–2013.
The Robert B. Taylor photograph is an 7 x 7.25 black and white gelatin-silver print featuring actors as the subject. This vintage photograph captures a moment in time from the 1990s and is framed, making it a unique and classic collectible for photography enthusiasts. The image is a single piece with a nature and nautical theme, printed on paper material.
