Joseph Robinson was born and raised in the East Bay. He grew up spending time in the dark room with his father, who was an active professional jazz photographer in the 1960s and 1970s. He did not pursue photography initially, but instead pursued a career in technology. A cultural vacation to Central America in the mid 1990s led to a rekindling of this early experience in photography.

Mr. Robinson has been showing his fathers of color work for a number of years while gathering images for a photo book on the subject. He has always done landscape photography as part of his travels. He considered this part of his personal collection. In recent years, he has begun to show and sell this work as well. He has also acquired an interest in gardens and begun photographing the plants and flowers.

Mr. Robinson participated has participated in The Art of Living Black since 2003. He participated in the One Black Day, My Race My Grace exhibition at the Sargent Johnson Gallery in the summer of 2003. He was a finalist in the Alameda County Art Commission Wall Corridor 2005 project for the new Juvenile Hall. He was a finalist in the Alameda County Art Commission Rotational Works Collection for 2005. He was featured in an Art of Living Black satellite photography exhibit, SNAP!, at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center in 2006. His work was featured at the Nomad Café, Oakland, California in February 2007. His work was at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, Glimpses in Time exhibit August, 2007.

His work has also been shown in the BABA: Black Artists Expressions of Father exhibits: San Francisco, 2006, Atlanta 2007, New York 2008 and New York 2011. He participated in an Open Studios Event at Mills College through The Art of Living Black in February 2011 and February 2012. He participated in the “Fathers in the Park” event with the Oakland Housing Authority in June, 2011.

As part of The Art of Living Black, Mr . Robinson is showing his work in winter 2020 at the Richmond Art Center and at the Jingletown Art Gallery in Oakland.