ArtQuench Presents; Robert Goldston,

A Photographer with Passion and Heart.

We met Robert at an event and immediately connected with this old soul.

Robert’s philosophy on life is that of one who creates constant movement 

in his journey which allows him such freedom to express his creativity in such a wonderful way

with his camera.  As you will see in his photographs Robert shares his eye for the some of the most

beautiful things in life like nature and his real world view of people and places.  

BIOGRAPHY 

Robert Lloyd Goldston Sr.

 

Synopsis

Born on January  16, 1945 in Inkster, Michigan, Robert Lloyd  Goldston  Sr. Grew up an only child but he was never alone because he had many cousins. During his early years Robert was mainly raised by his great grand parents as his Mom was a  teenager.

Early Life

As soon as Robert could help his Great Grand Dad with the farming chores, he was taught to hook up the family mare and the plowing of the property would begin. The two of them would plant vegetables of all sorts,  This went on for several years until Grand dad purchased a tractor.

After graduating from high school Robert decided to move from Michigan to Chicago to be with him Mom.  Coming from the farm and adjusting to the big city was a fun thing for this young lad.  So much fun he failed science as well as math and had to go to summer school to make up those classes. This really woke him up because at the private school he attended in Michigan he was an honor student. So Robert decided to get on the honor roll and he stayed there. After graduation He discovered that he liked taking pictures.  Illinois Institute of Technology  had a great photography program under the institute of design.

Robert enrolled and spent many hours in the dark room at school as well as at home.  While enrolled at IIT he made a decision to become a professional photographer.

WORK HISTORY

An uncle told Robert United Airlines was hiring, so he applied and was hired to work in the kitchen washing dishes. Since this job offered free air travel Robert and a friend took a trip to East Africa and since booth were photographers this was a real dream for them. Roberts school time was suffering after he returned from Africa because he was very busy being a working photographer and washing dishes at the airport. So he dropped out of IIT.

A promotion was offered at United so now Robert became  an Aircraft cleaner starting at midnight. Robert wanted out of this job because the chemicals used were very harsh so another promotion came up and Robert was awarded a job as a Ramp serviceman. Robert worked the Chicago O’hare flight line as a ramp rat for eight years. And by this time he has traveled to many places most of them in Europe. Robert was very tired of working under air crafts in the winter. So when a job transfer did come for a move to Los Angeles he jumped at it.  Since he now had seniority he was the flight line boss for aircraft dispatches. One day a young man on Roberts crew an Hawaiian asked him if he wanted to visit Hawaii. This visit was a god send for him. Upon returning to LA he requested a transfer to Honolulu thirty days later Robert was again a flight line boss. The locals loved him and taught him many things about the Hawaiian culture.  A few years into this position. A Supervisor and a Manager had a meeting with Robert and asked him to become the Ramp training Instructor. Robert turned the job down because the overtime was so great, but a year later he was asked again and did take the position.  Training for this position was in Chicago, Denver and San Francisco . Robert became known through out United’s system as a top Instructor.  In 1997 Robert was sent to Hong Kong with 11 other Instructors to close Kai tak airport and to open the new Chek Lap koi Airport.

For Robert this was an honor as well as a true challenge.   Robert did not know any language other than English. The job was to make sure the Chinese flight line employees knew how to receive and dispatch United’s Boeing 747’s and the new Boeing 777.

under United’s guidelines.

Five years later Robert took an early retirement and decided to handle a photography business full time.

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL

While working at United Robert had became a Wedding photographer documenting Weddings in Japan as well as Thailand was a real blast for him  because these cultures offer a different challenge to Wedding photographers. Robert has won awards at the Las Vegas Wedding convention for Some of his Hawaii wedding coverage. so whenever he has an opportunity to aim his camera at things of beauty not involving people he did just that and took on a new love for Photography as an Art.

After moving back to the US   from Thailand Robert did photographic coverage for a NFL team and visited several stadiums shooting football stars.

A new York media outlet asked Robert to cover Red carpet events like BET this was new for him but Robert loved shooting the stars. At one Red carpet event Robert was back stage and he noticed a well dressed man just standing no camera, eta so Robert asked him what is your job sir. The man told him I am a Director with Getty Images, Robert asked him how would I go about becoming a photographer with your company. his reply was do you have a web site we only hire photographers with web sites.  Robert told him to look at his site it was on his business card, they exchanged cards and the Gentleman told Robert who to see at Getty Images.  Shortly an interview was set up and Robert took the Getty class and became a Getty photographer as a contributor.

Robert took aim scenically at Paris, Madrid, London and then switched to Asia. Japan, Malaysia, Cambodia, Philippines., China and Thailand. China and Thailand run neck and neck as Roberts favorites with Thailand getting the edge because of the magnificent beast the Elephant. As a young kid there were always animals in his life especially the horses, so feeding and riding Elephants was clearly a love thing for him.

FOOD EDUCATION:

Early in his life Robert learned that he really had a love for all animals.  His grand mother as well as her sister were vegetarians and they taught eating animals was not a good thing. The true realization of this philosophy did not come to light until several years later. While working on the Flight line there is plenty  of down time between flights and Robert usually used this time reading health books. So it was easy for him to educate himself concerning health issues.  Four years ago his Great Aunt was celebrating her 100 year birthday and she told Robert that she had been a vegetarian  for Eighty (80) years and had out lived six (6) of her Twelve (12) children. She asked him if his died included animals. She was happy to hear him tell her he only ate fish and no red meat or chicken. She left us Four years later.

LIVING ABROAD:

Shortly after retiring early from the Airline, Robert relocated to Bangkok Thailand in South East Asia. A few reasons for this change in his life was he loved the culture of Thailand as it is a Kingdom very much different than the many other countries he had visited and the weather was to his liking year round. Fruits and vegetables are grown year round and you can buy these foods right from the street vendors. Roberts love for Golf had grown at a fever pitch and the many golf courses of Thailand were really great as every golfer who plays there has a caddy.

Robert discovered that there were many Americans who had also made this same move away from the US and he had several golf buddies who were also retired most of them from law enforcement. In this country of Thailand there is so much beauty everywhere from the Northern cities near Myanmar to the Southern resort cities just above Malaysia. Occasionally as a photographer Robert would cover a Wedding in Thailand but he really found a true photography focus with the Elephant camps in Northern Thailand. He said he fell in love with these Magnificent endangered beasts.

NEW CAREER:

Roberts freedom of travel has always been and is a blessing to him and several people had encouraged him to become a Tour Director. After a few years of studying this type of business he finally launched his Tour company which was developed to take clients to Thailand as well as China. Presently the business is getting up and running as is now a personal tour Director for his company GFAT.BIZ,  Goldston’s Fabulous Adventurous Tours. He has happy clients who take a five day or ten day tour and Robert always puts them in a four star hotel which he pays for. His clients will cover their air fare.

 FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ROBERT… 

http://www.goldstons.com/Photography.htm

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