Bellaire Drive, 2005
Robert Polidori is an internationally acclaimed photographer renowned for his large-format photographs capturing human habitats, interior architecture, and urban environments.
Early Life & Career Foundations
Polidori's artistic path began in avant-garde film rather than photography. While working in New York as an assistant to Jonas Mekas at the Anthology Film Archives, he absorbed visual lessons that influenced his subsequent photographic style. Moving away from Henri Cartier-Bresson's concept of the "decisive moment," Polidori developed an aesthetic focused on stillness, beauty, and contemplation.
His photographic career launched in the mid-1980s when he was granted access to document the restoration of the Château de Versailles. He later spent many years as a staff photographer for The New Yorker.
Major Projects & Artistic Philosophy
Polidori's work frequently views rooms as metaphors for memory—vessels where the imprints of past and present lives are embedded into physical spaces. Notable projects include:
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Versailles: A career-defining, decades-long project documenting the ongoing restoration and layers of history within the Château de Versailles.
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New Orleans (Post-Hurricane Katrina): Commissioned in 2006, his photos documenting the aftermath of Katrina were compiled into the book After The Flood (2006) and exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
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Lower East Side & International Sites: Early projects documenting apartments in New York's Lower East Side after tenants passed away, alongside visual explorations of Havana (Havana, 2001), war-torn Beirut, and the ecological aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Pripyat.
Awards & Monographs
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Selected Monographs: Robert Polidori: Parcours Museologique Revisite (3-volume set, Steidl, 2009), Chronophagia (Steidl, 2014), Dior Metamorphosis (Rizzoli, 2023), and After The Flood (Steidl, 2006).
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Honors: Recipient of the World Press Award (1998) and the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Magazine Photography (1999, 2000).
Museum Collections
His works are held in permanent collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, and the New Orleans Museum of Art.