Rob Wagner, photographer, was born in Flint, Michigan in 1954 in the heart of General Motors. He spent his youth dancing in the Flint Ballet Theatre and acting in The Flint Community Players. He also acted in summer stock theatre productions sponsored by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. His first camera, an Agfa pop down bellows 620, was purchased at a flea market around the age of 9 for 25 cents. Mr. Wagner developed his roll film in old aluminum ice cube trays in the crawl space under the stairs in the house he grew up in. He made contact prints only with outdated Velox paper given to him by the local newspaper photography department.
In 1973, at the age of 18, Mr. Wagner left Flint and moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and did aerial photography as well as taught basic photography courses for a local camera shop in Deerfield Beach. He did portraits of senior citizens along South Beach. Mr. Wagner moved to San Francisco in 1975 and immediately began his photographic career shooting modeling portfolios for the Grimme Modeling Agency. He opened his first studio at 2215 Filbert Street in the Marina District.
Wagner left San Francisco in the late 70's and moved to New York City and became the fashion and beauty photographer for Wolfarhts Studio. Mr. Wagner photographed table top setups for the studio's only two clients, Sears and J.C. Penney. During this time he began as a test photographer for many of the modeling agencies in New York.
In 1980, Mr. Wagner, newly married, put away his camera and endeavored to prosper in the corporate world and moved back to Ft. Lauderdale. He spent the next nine years away from the camera and became deeply involved in family and the business world. In 1989, the sudden death of his son was a turning point in his life and in his photographic career.
Divorced in 1994, Mr. Wagner, a single parent with two daughters, left Florida and moved back to San Francisco and began in ernest to rekindle his passion. He opened up a small studio in Pacific Heights and began shooting nudes. After two years in San Francisco, Mr. Wagner moved one hour north to the small community of Bodega Bay. (Alfred Hitchcock's Birds, 1963).
Mr. Wagner had an opportunity to relocate his studio to New Orleans in 1998. He now owns and operates The FilmWorks Photo Studio & Gallery in The French Quarter.

www.robwagner.com