Seth David Rubin was born in 1968 in Lisbon, Portugal where his American parents, both artists, were living at the time. At age 5, His mother re-married a prominent black civil rights attorney and he became a great father to Seth. The experience of his multiracial family would deeply influence the spectrum of his art.
He started taking pictures at the age of eleven. On scholarships, he attended high school at George School in Pennsylvania. He received his B.A. degree from Bard College. He recognizes the photography department directed by Stephen Shore as critical to his artistic formation. Subsequently, Seth received his Master’s of Fine Arts Degree from Yale University.
While at Bard, partly in response to dominant documentary photography trends at the time, and an influential visit with artist John Coplans, he started making “performances for the camera,” using his own body. Seth’s graduating theses at both Bard and Yale featured photographs that were created using his own figure. Though not exclusively, he still draws upon himself for subject matter.
Seth David Rubin’s work has been shown internationally in galleries such as Yancey Richardson in New York City, the Howard Yezerski Gallery in Boston, The Photographer’s Gallery in London, England and Atelier Napolitano in Paris, France. For eight years, he was an artist in residence with the Merchant Ivory Foundation, and he continues to be a digital imagist and photographer for them today.
He was the director of the Columbia-Greene Community College photography department, and has taught photography at all levels, including many colleges.
Seth lives in Stone Ridge, New York.