Robert Byers

Robert K Byers

Bio: Robert K. Byers' interest in fine art photography started when he was twelve and became serious in 1961 with studies with Ansel Adams and later with Wynn Bullock and Brett Weston. He was a Trustee of the Friends of Photography for nineteen years, headed by Ansel as President. During his tenure that organization reached a membership high of 17,000. In addition, he was Treasurer of that organization for eighteen years and served for a time as Vice President. He has taught at numerous workshops throughout the United States, including many for the Friends of Photography. He primarily uses large format cameras and has traveled extensively, photographing in the United States, Canada, Mexico and throughout Europe and Japan.

Mr. Byers was born in 1918 in Idaho where he spent his childhood. He graduated from the University of California Berkeley with a BA degree in economics in 1940. Thereafter he received an LLB from Harvard Law School, an MBA from Harvard Business School and served as a Captain in the United States Army during World War II on the staff of the Commanding General of the San Francisco Port of Embarkation. Following that, for many years, he practiced law in California's Santa Clara and Monterey Counties and was also involved as a principal in many and various farming and other business ventures. He is now retired as a principal from a Carmel law firm and devotes most all of his time pursuing photography as a fine art form. He was a consultant to Sata Corporation of Tokyo, Japan, a medical manufacturing and sales company with activities throughout the world and Photo Gallery International, Tokyo, the largest photo gallery in Japan for over thirty years. For almost as many years he also was a consultant to Oriental Paper Distributing Company of Santa Ana, CA, a part of one of the largest photo paper companies in the world.