Robert Andy Coombs is a queer, disabled photographer. He grew up in Michigan’s majestic Upper Peninsula, where he spent his childhood roaming the great outdoors. He started photographing his walkabouts in middle school and moved on to portraiture in high school. Coombs received a scholarship to Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids Michigan. During his third year in undergrad, he sustained a spinal cord injury due to a gymnastics training accident. After a year of recovery, he returned to KCAD and received his BFA in photography in 2013. Coombs’ photography explores the intersections of disability and sexuality. Themes of relationships, caregiving, fetish, and sex are depicted throughout his most prominent series, CripFag. Coombs graduated from the Yale School of Art with his MFA amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and is currently residing in coastal Alabama.

This event is a part of our school’s commitment to uphold principles of anti-racism, equity, diversity, and inclusion as integral to its mission, and will work towards achieving an educational environment that rejects inequity, advances social justice, and amplifies historically underrepresented voices.