About

In his photography Lipgar aims for openness and transparency, believing technique should be silent so that the viewer’s relation to the scene can be direct and unimpeded. For this website he has chosen images that bring together moments of shared vision and empathic understanding. “I aim to celebrate the iconic in the commonplace by creating images that share familiar moments.”

Robert Lipgar, born and raised in Kingston, NY, continues a family tradition in photography that began with his father, A.H. Lipgar, before WWI.  At age 10 Lipgar began his apprenticeship with his father, who was a leading photographer in Kingston and the Hudson Valley for more than 40 years. Lipgar continued his creative studies at Hamilton College and combined them with the study of psychology. After earning his doctorate in clinical and group psychology at the University of Chicago, he had a career of almost five decades in Chicago as a psychotherapist and academician while continuing to develop as a creative photographer, traveling widely and mounting exhibits at major institutions and galleries in the mid-west.

Now retired as a psychologist and returned to his roots in Kingston, Lipgar devotes his full attention to photography, bringing alive the second generation of Lipgar photography in the Hudson Valley. He resides in Rhinebeck, where he is surrounded by rich opportunities for artistic inspiration. An active member of the Woodstock Artists Association & Museum (WAAM), he received the Leilani Claire Award for Photography in 2006. He also participates in the Center for Photography's Photo Salon in Woodstock, the Greene County Camera Club, and the Red Hook Community Arts Network. His new work is exhibited regularly in juried shows at WAAM, the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, CO, and the PhotoPlace Gallery in Middlebury, VT.

Five original books ofLipgar photographs are available through his website www.lipgarphotography.com: Everyday Signs of Life (2010), West Wind Island - Family Life in Georgian Bay (2011), In Available Light - Portraits by Lipgar (2012), Israel - The Enduring Values (2014), and Returning (2014). Returning was one of the winners of PHOTOBOOK 2014, juried by the David Orton Gallery in Hudson, NY and the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA.

Lipgar passed away in 2018, his obituary can be found here: http://www.simpsongaus.com/obituary/Robert-M.-Lipgar/Rhinebeck-NY/1779786

Print Quality

All prints are made with high quality pigmented inks and archival paper at Spectral Masters DI in the Bronx, NY

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