Robert Sturman: “I’m just a guy who cares about life”

Sturman adopted Otis, a dog who had been part of animal testing experiments, and together they have raised awareness about this terrible issue in society. (@robertsturman)

There he is, sitting in a corner of a beautiful garden in the picturesque area of Coyoacán, Mexico. Around him, some tables are occupied, others are empty. Some children are playing, shouting, laughing, living. It’s a beautiful garden functioning as a café and restaurant. No one would guess that this man is a highly respected photographer worldwide—an artist who has traveled to many places, taking photos of people as a mosaic representing existence.

In his portfolio, we can see children and adults in Africa, Gaza, Israel, Cuba, Italy, and many other places. His photographs often show people practicing yoga, many in the most unexpected locations. For some time, he has dedicated his art to capturing images in prisons in the United States and Mexico, in particular.

But Robert Sturman’s work is not just art for the sake of art. He is an Angeleno with a very clear perspective on his role as an artist in the world. There is a music movement called Playing for Change, and what might define Sturman’s work is how it portrays the world he has chosen to help change.

“We can say that I use Yoga to tell a story,” he says humbly, his computer on the table, and his phone out of the service area and unable to receive a signal.

“We need to make a sincere effort to make the world better,” he says.

He recently gave a talk at TED, a nonprofit organization devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks, often called “TED Talks.”

His talk was titled “Seeing Our Humanity Through a Photographer’s Eye.”

“How do you see humanity in these conflicted times?” I ask him.

“I need more practice… more than ever, there is so much to take in, there’s a lot of suffering in the world. I need to find a way to process it every day. I can’t ignore it. My heart is bleeding a lot; we need to transform suffering and bring life into this world,” he says thoughtfully.

For Sturman, more work means more time for meditation, more practice of asanas (the physical practice of Yoga), more work, more faces in his photographs that impact the world, and, perhaps, show the beauty of the transformation process.

“I have been blessed doing my work. For me, making a picture is a way to transform the world,” he says. To me, his photos are also his cries of protest against the injustices he witnesses during his travels around the world. It’s a form of rebellion that he expresses with every ‘click’ of his camera.

“I don’t create a fake world, I’m not interested,” he says. “Maybe it’s easier to play the dummer, but I care about humanity, the world, life.”

“Here is a photo with Tao Porchon-Lynch, who practiced yoga until she passed away at 101 years old. ‘Her presence, like the fall season, is filled with wisdom, grace, and transformation. Tao embodied the beauty of living fully, embracing each moment with the energy of someone much younger.'”(@robertsturman)

Robert Sturman was born in Los Angeles, where his parents instilled an interest in art and literature. Even though Sturman had all the opportunities to choose other paths, he chose the artistic one and the search for meaning in his existence.

During his adolescence, he faced desperate moments in his search for belonging and importance in the world. He had to find that purpose, as a friend later expressed to him when he was going to visit the Nazi extermination camps in Auschwitz.

“She told me, ‘what you have to do is search for that one flower and then water it until it becomes a massive field,’” he recalls.

At 14, his father gave him a camera and advised him to take photos of anything he loved.

“I enrolled in some classes, I was awful—really bad!” he laughs. But the seed was already planted.

Sadness and depression began to accompany him. He felt like an outsider, and that search, that desire to find and connect, persisted. “To care is all that matters.”

At 15, he became a vegetarian after witnessing animal testing experiments; he couldn’t stand the cruelty and didn’t want to be part of it. This attitude has persisted throughout his life. Years later, he adopted Otis, a dog that had been part of those same experiments, and together they have brought attention to this terrible situation in society.

His eyes light up when he talks about Otis; you can feel the connection. Robert shifts in his chair, and if he could, he would stand up and dance. The happiness this dog brings to his life is palpable.

At 18, he took his first Yoga class, but it was just another activity; the seed planted in his childhood had not yet blossomed.

At 30, he traveled to India. Osho, the philosophy of this spiritual leader, profoundly impacted him. In a previous interview, Sturman described this experience.

“My camera and Yoga led me to India. I was thirty. I started the journey in Pune at Osho’s meditation center—just to get acclimated to the culture. So here I was—on my way into the unknown to photograph India with my Polaroid process. It was so otherworldly to me. I was terrified and questioning what in the world I was getting myself into. When I walked into Osho’s center, there was a big sign. The title of it was ‘The way of the Creator.’ To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.”

His sensitivity extends to any expression that touches our empathy: cancer survivors, students at the Braille Institute, police officers, veterans, teachers or not, kids, underserved communities, and much more. (@robertsturman)

And that’s where this photographic work began, which has had a huge impact worldwide. He took photos of great Yoga teachers in Los Angeles, which later appeared on the city streets. His photos appeared in magazines and other publications, and his art was able to express itself and communicate with society.

“Yeah, people recognized me, some yogis asked me to take their photos, but it wasn’t my true purpose,” he adds.

Years later, he was introduced to the Prison Yoga Project. A psychologist friend invited him to a maximum-security prison to take photos—something he had never thought about before. He didn’t know that world; he had never been exposed to it.

His world changed in a way. From the privileged area of West LA to the world of prisons, there was a huge distance. But that’s when this part of his education began.

And not only in prisons—his sensitivity extends to any expression that touches our empathy: cancer survivors, students at the Braille Institute, police officers, veterans, teachers, kids, underserved communities, and much more.

“A lot of people who knew me wondered what I was doing, going from the world of yogis dressed in Lululemon and expensive Yoga studios to prisons—it was a huge shift,” he says.

However, the lessons and teachings he has received have been invaluable.

“What they seek (people in jail) is to be seen and recognized. They are very intelligent, very human people. They can read you in a second. They know if you want to lie, if you’re looking for excuses, if you don’t accept them. Shortly after, that helped me change my experience. When choosing models for the photos, I made sure they were part of it; I didn’t want to feel like a thief, just coming to a prison and taking their pictures. I started to ‘make’ those photos with them,” he adds.

His photographs are beautiful, as Sturman has repeated in other interviews, quoting Rumi: “I can’t stop pointing to the beauty. That feels right to me.”

But that beauty is filled with essence, pain, unhappiness, hope… and, why not, love, illusion, and the search for a better world.

“We need to make a sincere effort to make the world better,” he says.

Sturman has made Mexico part of his project and has given visibility to The Prison Yoga Project (PYP), directed by Luisa Pérez.

“Robert is a human being with a generous heart and an inspiring vision. Through his teachings, he invites us to discover beauty in unexpected places and rediscover yoga’s transformative power. His presence has reminded us of the importance of trusting in our ability to heal and grow within a community. It has inspired us to support each other on this journey toward awareness and well-being,” Luisa Said.

Sturman is very committed to PYP’s work in Mexico.

“Mexico has a more open atmosphere for doing my work. The guards are friendlier; I always interact with the staff, and with them, they have more support in their rehabilitation. It’s a great experience for me.”

For Sturman, the advice for people who want to follow in his steps is simple.

“I’d tell them, take care of yourself, be helpful to human beings, and write your own story. In the end, I’m just a guy who cares about life,” he says.