Robert Yager grew up in London, England and is a Los Angeles based, freelance photographer. Interested in street culture and having studied Latin American Studies in the UK & Mexico, as well as Photography in the US, Yager decided to delve into the world of Latino street gangs in Los Angeles. It was 1991 and he has been documenting the lives of gang members ever since.
Yager has been a contributing photographer, doing covers and features, portraits and reportage, for a host of magazines. Among them: The New York Times Magazine, Fortune, The Fader, Esquire, Interview, Rolling Stone, Newsweek and TIME.
In the UK: The Observer, The Independent, The Telegraph, The Guardian Weekend, The Sunday Times Magazine and Marie Claire. Plus Le Monde’s M Magazine in France and Numéro, Stern in Germany.
Among other accolades, Yager was awarded a fellowship from the Aaron Siskind Foundation at the School of Visual Arts in New York and best photo essay from the International Photography Awards.
Yager published a book of photographs, ‘a.k.a. BooBoo’, which covers a 14 year time span in the life of Cindy Martinez, a female member of The Playboys Gang. An exhibition of this work led to him becoming David Lee Roth’s personal photographer, documenting Diamond Dave’s return to touring the USA & Canada in Van Halen, during 2007 & 2008. Yager was also Van Halen’s tour photographer in 2012.
Yager maintains his interest in human society, particularly counter-culture.