Robert Ferguson took his first black and white serious photograph on a 4X5 Speed Graphic while a high school student at Mentor High School in Ohio in 1960. He sold his first photograph three years later to a national magazine thus launching a career of forty years-plus in one form of photography or another. His has produced photographs for magazines, newspapers, and wire services. He has won local, state and national awards for his photo-journalistic work. He has lectured on the subject at Texas Christian University, University of Iowa, New Mexico State University, and the University of Texas at El Paso. He continues to be active in digital photography as well as the traditional film process. He has been drawing and painting almost as long as he has produced photography. He studied fine arts at Youngstown State University where his work appeared in not only student shows but at the Cleveland Museum of Art and Butler Art Institute. He also produced illustrations, cartoons and maps for newspapers, magazines and has sold over one hundred and fifty paintings to individual collectors.
Resume summary: Twenty-five year plus experience in journalism, publishing both electronic and traditional media. Winner of numerous awards as photographer, writer and editor, including being an NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) Fellow to study at University of Iowa. Former business owner: Columbia Features, Inc. (Newspaper Syndication Company), Brewer Printing Company (sheet-fed offset printing), EOS, Inc. (electronic delivery of text and graphics). Ormond Beach Observer (weekly newspaper). Media Consultant to: Parkland Management Company, Tribune Company, American Publishing, Editor’s Press Service, The Observer Company (Florida), St. Augustine Technical Center, Chicago Sun-Times, Universal Press Syndicate. Past ten years: Has written four novels (a trilogy of murder-mystery spoofs, set in Florida), The Baseball Diamond Mystery, a young adult book presently, a novelette, and newspaper columns distributed both electronically and published in over one hundred newspapers. Created over one thousand digital images of art, birds, landscapes of the South. Presently: Self-employed artist, photographer, writer, and consultant, contract worker. He lives in Volusia County, Florida where he maintains his studio on the Indian River in Edgewater.
