DIRECTORY 2025

Edward L. Rubin | Photography

Edward L. Rubin is an award-winning fine art photographer, production designer, and painter based in Los Angeles. With a background in architecture from UC Berkeley and a Master of Fine Arts in Set Design from Carnegie-Mellon, Edward's artistic career spans multiple disciplines. His photographs have been exhibited worldwide, including in major competitions and galleries in the U.S. and Europe. His photography book Vermont – An Insider's Outside View was shortlisted for the 2016 International Rubery Book Awards and won multiple accolades, including a 2017 Independent Publishers Book Award Gold Medal. Edward has received six Emmy nominations for Art Direction, winning for Cinderella (Disney). He has worked on over 60 productions, taught at FIDM, and earned five nominations for the Excellence in Production Design Award. His pastel paintings have been shown in galleries in California, and his painting The Annunciation won First Place in The Artist's Magazine 2013 competition. Currently, he is working on a photography series titled My Mannequin Moment, which is a series of portraits that depict the transcendent moment when we realize we are no longer aligned with the roles, beliefs, or relationships we've accepted and where the veil is lifted and we confront the false ideals imposed on us. Edward has been married to poet Sam Ambler for 34 years and is an avid swimmer.

The portraits in My Mannequin Moment depict a transcendent moment when individuals realize they are no longer aligned with their current path or identity. It’s a recognition that what they are doing, believing, or involved in no longer serves their highest good or reflects their true selves. Everyone has, at some point, embraced ideas, roles, or relationships that weren’t truly what they wanted or thought they wanted. From birth, society imposes belief systems about success, normalcy, power, beauty, and identity, shaping our sense of self. “The Mannequin Moment” occurs when one stops listening to these external voices and begins to hear the true, inner Voice—the authentic Self. Mannequins are used as symbols of unattainable perfection, embodying false ideals. Through them, the artist portrays the decisive moment when a person no longer fits into these imposed roles, when the veil is lifted and self-awareness begins.

www.edwardlrubinphoto.com
@edwardlrubinphoto