When I was asked to write a bio for International Photographer Robbie Merritt I found myself becoming more and more captured by this man’s charisma and knowledge of Photography and Art. The more I understood this man the more respect I gained from understanding that he believes in the Power of Positive Affirmation. If he believes it can be done it will be done. When you commission Robbie Merritt to capture fleeting seconds in your own life he is capturing them momentously.
During his studies as a teenager Robbie worked every weekend unpaid for 12 months as a stringer ABC Film News Cameraman with his much respected mentor the late Tony Munday . His second break came when the late Sir Douglas Burton from the TVW Channel 7 Network offered him a full time position in 1978 as a Photographer, Television Host, Actor and part time Celebrity. He worked exclusively with the Miss Universe Pageant shooting Celebrities such as Donny Osmond, Robin Moore , Chantal Contouri . Robbie was the youngest ever TV Week and TV Times Paparazzi working for TVW7.
Robbie continued working for the ABC on Sundays but always dedicated his Saturdays to the Sunday Times Newspapers where he developed skills from the masters of Paparazzi John Ibbs (former editor the Sunday Times), the Late Julian Cowan and Neil Elliot the importance of getting the shot the first time as you get no second chance.
Today much of what was cultured into his mindset plays out today in every photoshoot. In 1984 he moved from TVW 7 to Melbourne where he as a stringer for Age Newspapers and shot for magazines such as Black and White, Australian Women’s Weekly, New Idea, Australian Vogue and several News limited publications.Living in a small unit in St Kilda spending his days shooting beautiful models and selling educational publications, Robbie moved to Sydney in 1987 where he lived in Neutral Bay commuting daily to his York Street Studio where he eventually met and later married one of his Models and moved to Far North Queensland to raise two amazing kids Nathan and Mitchell both now grown men with an entrepreneurial outlook on life.
In 1992 Robbie worked as Photographer for Village Roadshow, Time Warner and Fox Studios, Optus and Gold Coast Models. Living in the Gold Coast his business was nominated as a finalist for the Courier Mail Business Achievers Award.
During the next 10 years Robbie worked as photographer and sometime Actor/ Extra on various movies such as the Phantom, Fortress, Space Above and Beyond and many local TV Commercials and print media. Moving back to Perth in 2004 he rekindled his connections with Perth Media people and was proud to be invited as Celebrity Photographer at the TVW7 50th Reunion. This showcased over 5 years of Robbie’s work whilst at TVW 7 where many of his images are now a fixture in it’s corridor’s.
Since 2005 Robbie has shot/filmed/photographed over 5,000 clients, worked on countless Television Commercials, helped hundreds of men and women realize their dreams to become published and recognized models. Robbie is Western Australia’s key contact for American News Publishers ‘United States Press Agency’, ‘EIN News and Entertainment’ where many of his Paparazzi skills are seen on ‘E-News’, ‘TMZ’ and distributed to over 3,000 global magazines .His journalistic skills are a regular feature on Google News, The ‘Hollywood Reporter’ even the ‘Wall Street Select’ .
Robbie has always had a close affiliation with many fashion organizations and was proud to be working in 2013 with ‘Global Fashion Week’ . Robbie’s Portraiture work is second to none, his tutoring and coaching with every shoot is pedantic, his style of wedding photography is unique is featured in WA Brides Magazine 2013 with over 12 pages of pictorial shoots including the back cover.
Robbie also finds time to donate many hundreds of hours to help fund raise charitable organizations and in 2013 his work extend further to an amazing exhibition of portraiture for the ‘Cancer Survivors Association of Western Australia’ and the ‘Rural Royal Flying Doctors Association’. I am proud to say he was appointed ‘Official Photographer to World Fashion Week in Paris 2013’ where his work and humanitarian efforts can now extend overseas .
In 2014 Robbie was nominated Australian of the Year for his humanitarian efforts over a lifetime of achievements. Overcoming personal battles with depression and an obsessed stalker /photographer from Perth, Robbie moved to Sydney alone in 2017 where within a few weeks his fast became the ‘Go To Man’ in Sydney for actors headshots , corporate images and magazine covers.
Over the next few years Robbie worked with world class models , exotic super-cars and some of the most talented actors from all over the world with his work being published in mainstream magazines from MAXIM to MARIE CLAIRE .
We now hear he is also an Associate Producer for several Australian blockbusters such as ‘Stripey’ a film by Warren Coleman who co-directed the Academy Award-winning animated feature Happy Feet and co-wrote Happy Feet Two.
Robbie is also involved with several action thriller feature movies being produced right here in Sydney creating jobs for hundreds of local creative talents. You will often see Robbie inviting work associates and emerging actors to Zoom meetings with Hollywood Director Michael Mandaville , producer and writer, known for Taken (2008), Taken 2 (2012) and Taken 3 (2014) or Steven Bernstein, ASC, DGA, WGA , an American cinematographer, director, screenwriter and author who in 1992 he won the Best Artistic Contribution Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival for Like Water for Chocolate alongside Emmanuel Lubezki. Steven’s movies also include ‘Waterboy’, ‘White Chicks’, ‘SWAT’, ‘Dominio’ and ‘ Scary Movie 2’.
When you ask Robbie Merritt to shoot your next image or help with your marketing you’re not just hiring a photographer a marketing guru or a social media giant, you’re buying a piece of Australian Television History with global connections and unlimited resources .
You can contact Robbie through his IMDB https://pro.imdb.com/name/
Written by International Conference and Seminar Speaker Sylvia Marina http://www.sylviamarina.com/
