Robert Leslie

Biography

Robert Leslie has spent over 25 years active in the photography, covering culture, humanitarian & educational domains. Moving from his activity as a musician in Canada to a photographer in Paris shooting architecture, performance, still life & reportage. Leslie was the first composer commissioned by France’s museums, to create a soundtrack for the Age of Bronze exhibition at the Rodin Museum.
With the arrival of the internet & digital photography, Robert relocated to London in late 1999 to developing a web design agency. Returning to photography, Leslie shifted to event coverage for Unicef UK. His style led to an introduction to TED.com in 2005. Leslie became that organisation’s core photographer that year until 2013. Apple computer approached Leslie to become their international spokesman for Aperture, their professional digital photography software - a position he held for 6 years.
His commitment to education expanded collaborating with the World Science Festival & with the US foundation, Young Arts, from 2008-2015. Attending all the major photography gatherings, in 2007, Leslie began a new series documenting the greatest photographers : www.1000portraits.net.
Completing a commission Chinese urban development in 2008, turned his lens to the US. His personal project Stormbelt, begun in early 2009, addressed the environmental & economic devastation through America’s sunbelt. A second trip to the area again in 2011, he conducted interviews & filmed the journey to create the world’s first multimedia, fine arts eBook (translated into 5 languages). The print version followed a year later with 2 essays by TED prize winners, Edward Burtynsky & Cameron Sinclair.
Based in London, Leslie recently received an Extraordinary Ability EB1 US Visa.