Robert Gordon

- was born and raised in Holland, Michigan. He holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership and a master’s in history from Western Michigan University (WMU), and degree in history from Hope College. Gordon was a history professor at WMU, as well as professor and administrator at Siena Heights University (SHU) for over 35 years.  Among other administrative duties he also served as Dean of the College and later as Graduate Dean.

A self-taught photographer, Gordon has traveled to and photographed in France, Scotland, Spain, Greece, Ireland, and China. His exhibition titled “The Lands of Dominic” was exhibited at Siena Heights University, Dominican University in Chicago, Caldwell College, Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Dominican University of California, Ohio Dominican University, Albertus Magnus College, and Barry University. Gordon has also published a book of photographs and interviews titled, “So I Come to America: Detroit Pre-World War I Immigrants”, which was exhibited at Siena Heights University, the Ann Arbor District Library, the Adrian Public Library, the Michigan Public Library, the Detroit Public Library, the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, and the Lorenzo Cultural Center at Macomb Community College. He has also exhibited a collection of photographs titled “The Parks of Lenawee County” at the Croswell Opera House. 

Gordon states, “Photography, like all art, seeks to give form to ever-changing reality. This quest for form, Thoreau reminds us, is limited by the fact that, “You cannot say more than you can see.” I do not “take” photographs. Nor do I “make” them. I simply “receive” them. These photographs are fleeting moments of time, unions of cosmic forces and my spirit, arrested by my vision, recorded by my camera. Like Baudelaire and Cartier Bresson, I am a flaneur, an artist who walks around and takes “notes” of everyday life. The “notes” can be words or pictures. Baudelaire described the flaneur as, "a person who walks the city in order to experience it.” In this case I was walking the trails and parks of Lenawee County. Whether it’s Tecumseh or Paris, I love experiencing city life and capturing its scenes and rhythms in my photographs.”