{{Short description|Australian photographic artist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}}
'''Robert Besanko''' (born 1951) is a self-taught Australian photographic artist who lives and works in Melbourne. He started producing work in the early 1970s using Orthochromatic Kodalith paper and extensive work in the darkroom to produce his images.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Gouriotis | first = Kon | title = Robert Besanko interview | journal = Artist Profile | issue = 38 | date = 2017 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | last = Murphy | first = Anne | title = Printing the unprintable | newspaper = The Observer | date = 31 May 1988 | page = 25 }}</ref>
Folios of his work appeared in issue 3 of ''Light Vision'' (January–February 1978), and the March 1978 issue of ''Creative Camera'', dedicated to Australian photographers.
In 1979, Besanko became one of the first artists to receive a residency at the newly established Australia Council Greene Street Studio in New York.<ref name="ArtistProfile2024">{{cite web |title=Residencies and Reality: Bad Business in the Visual Arts |url=https://artistprofile.com.au/residencies-and-reality-bad-business-in-the-visual-arts/ |website=Artist Profile |date=2024 |access-date=10 February 2025}}</ref> In 1981 the Centre Pompidou in Paris exhibited ''Robert Besanko et la photographie australienne aujourd'hui'';<ref name="Centre Pompidou">{{cite web |title=Robert Besanko et la photographie australienne aujourd'hui |url=https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/ressources/personne/c5ee9BR | website=Centre Pompidou | accessdate=7 February 2025}}</ref> it subsequently acquired 12 of his Kodalith photographs from the exhibition.
In the mid-1970s Kodalith paper was discontinued and Besanko stopped producing prints when it became unavailable. In the late 1990s he started looking at producing digital prints but it was not until the collaboration with the printer Tim Handfield and then Les Walkling<ref>{{cite web | url = http://test.leswalkling.com/words/on-collaboration/ | title = On Collaboration | last = Walkling | first = Les | website = Les Walkling | date = 2013 | access-date = 10 February 2025 | quote = A discussion on the nature of collaboratively producing digital prints with Robert Besanko. }}</ref> that he produced work that was exhibited. The large-scale digital prints he produced with them were exhibited alongside his original Kodalith prints at the Australian Centre for Photography in 2013.<ref name="ACP">{{cite web|url=https://www.mutualart.com/Exhibition/Robert-Besanko--Contemplations/76C9C379768E23FF|title=Robert Besanko – Contemplations |date=2013 }}</ref>
==Selected solo exhibitions== *1977 ''Robert Besanko'', Upstairs Gallery, Perth, WA, Australia{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}} *1978 ''Robert Besanko'', The Photographers' Gallery and Workshop, Melbourne, VIC, Australia{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}} *1978 ''Robert Besanko – Photographs'', Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, NSW, Australia{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}} *1981 ''Robert Besanko et la photographie australienne aujourd'hui'',Centre Pompidou, Paris, France<ref name="Centre Pompidou" /> *1984 ''Photographs by Robert Besanko'', Robin Gibson, Sydney, NSW, Australia{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}} *1988 ''Robert Besanko Photographs'', Mornington Peninsula Art Centre, Mornington, VIC, Australia{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}} *1988 ''Robert Besanko Photographs 1973–1981'', King Street Studios (touring Victorian Regional Galleries, started in Arrarat), Sydney, NSW, Australia{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}} *1993 ロバート・ベサンコ ''Robert Besanko'', Zeit-Foto, Tokyo, Japan<ref name="Zeit-Foto">{{cite web |title=ロバート・ベサンコ Robert Besanko |url=https://www.zeit-foto.com/collection-1/robert-besanko | website=Zeit-Foto | accessdate=11 February 2025}}</ref> *1998 ''Besanko'', Michael Hoppen, London, UK{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}} *1999 ''Besanko'', Michael Hoppen, London, UK{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}} *2013 ''Robert Besanko: Contemplations'', Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, NSW, Australia<ref name="ACP"/>
== Collections ==
* Art Gallery of New South Wales<ref name="Art Gallery of New South Wales">{{cite web |title=Art Gallery of New South Wales: Artist: Besanko, Robert 1951 |url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?q=besanko/ |accessdate=7 February 2025}}</ref> * Bibliothèque nationale de France<ref name="Bibliothèque nationale de France">{{cite web |title=Collection. Original photographs. Artwork by Robert Besanko |url=https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb40468233v |website=Bibliothèque nationale de France |accessdate=7 February 2025}}</ref> * Centre Pompidou<ref name="Centre Pompidou"/> * Horsham Regional Art Gallery<ref name="Horsham Regional Art Gallery">{{cite web |title=Horsham Regional Art Gallery: Artist: Besanko, Robert 1951 |url=https://victoriancollections.net.au/organisations/horsham-regional-art-gallery?q=robert%20besanko/ |accessdate=7 February 2025}}</ref> * Museum of Fine Arts, Houston<ref name="Museum of Fine Arts, Houston">{{cite web |title=Works by Robert Besanko |url=https://emuseum.mfah.org/people/11088/robert-besanko |website=Museum of Fine Arts Houston, MFAH |accessdate=7 February 2025}}</ref> * National Gallery of Australia<ref name="NGA">{{cite web |title=NGA collections: Artist: Besanko, Robert 1951 |url=https://searchthecollection.nga.gov.au/artist/22758/robert-besanko |accessdate=7 February 2025}}</ref> * National Gallery of Victoria<ref name="National Gallery of Victoria">{{cite web |title=NGV collections: Artist: Robert Besanko |url=https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/artist/2441/ |accessdate=7 February 2025}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Besanko, Robert}} Category:1951 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century Australian photographers Category:21st-century Australian photographers Category:Photographers from Melbourne Category:Australian photographers