“So there I was, flying through the air, performing what I knew would be my best backside aerial ever. Just before the perfect landing, my hand slipped off my skateboard. The next thing I remembered I was pulling myself off the cement, staring down at the odd angle of my shoulder. When my old man picked me up from the hospital, he strongly suggested I find a different avenue for my energies and we stopped off at the local camera shop. As they say, the rest is history.”
— Bob Carey

Since his forced early retirement from a barely budding skateboarding career, commercial and fine arts photographer Bob Carey has operated a successful photographic studio for over 20 years; during that time he has served the needs of high-visibility commercial and individual clients from around the world. He is currently based in New York.

In 2002, Carey began photographing himself in a pink tutu in various locations as a part of a new fine art project exploring identity, stereotyping and transformation. This project took on an important new meaning for him in 2003 when his wife, Linda, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. Carey’s comic efforts were now aimed at bringing a smile to his wife’s face during the bleakest of times; it ended up also being a powerful mode of self-therapy for the photorgrapher himself.

Linda shared Carey’s arresting photos with other chemotherapy patients undergoing treatment. The laughter and appreciation from his newly found viewers inspired the couple to self-publish Ballerina, a book of Carey’s pink tutu photographs, which in turn was used to raise funds in support of much-needed support services for breast cancer patients. Now known as The Tutu Project, Carey’s unforgettable images went viral in 2012 and have garnered an international audience.

Bob Carey’s photographic work also has received acclaim in the world of fine arts. It is included in the permanent collections of Arizona State University Art Museum (ASUAM), as well as Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Arts (SMOCA). His photographs have also been exhibited at Gallerie Callu Merite, Paris, France, Chiaroscuro Gallery in Santa Fe, NM, Trinity Gallery in Atlanta,GA, Udinotti Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY and June Bateman Gallery in New York City.