Bobby Sheehan Biography

Photographer and filmmaker Bobby Sheehan began his eclectic career in the mid seventies. While still in high school, he designed visual presentations for the New York fashion emporium, Parachute. While attending New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Sheehan opened his own production company where he directed and produced commercials and fashion videos and continued his photographic career.

At 17, and at the height of the punk rock scene, the then blue-haired Sheehan photographed the musicians of the time; The Clash, The Ramones, Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, Blondie, Television, Ultravox, 999 in addition to many New York based bands for the Village Voice, Soho News, Cream, and Circus Magazine. He was contacted by Andy Warhol, a fan of Sheehan’s work for Parachute, to collaborate on an art film, a project that was cut short with Warhol’s untimely death. Sheehan’s fashion photography appeared regularly in GQ and New York Magazine.

Sheehan graduated from NYU’s film division of the Tisch School of the Arts and works as a director/cameraman. He is the founder of New York based Working Pictures Inc.

Sheehan’s Fine Art Photography was been exhibited nationally in galleries such as: Bridgewater Lustburg in New York, Stephen Cohen Gallery in Los Angeles and the Vision Gallery in San Francisco. The Dreyfus Foundation has purchased works by Sheehan for their permanent collection.

Bobby Sheehan is a writer-director working in the advertising, television, new media and independent film worlds. He and his wife, Sara Feldmann Sheehan founded and run Working Pictures and Grenade Editorial, production and editorial houses with offices in New York and Canada.

Sheehan has written, produced, and directed “My Name Is Nigel Cook”, a hilarious satire on the film industry in which Sheehan plays the legally blind cameraman, Markus Orlander. “Nigel” is Sheehan’s second feature film following the critically acclaimed “Seed” of which Variety raved: “This visually captivating spiritual movie journeys across America…with innovative cinematic form. A highly imaginative, collage like, experimental epic that relentlessly strips away at the boundaries between features and documentaries”. IFC Films acquired “SEED” for distribution.

The Sheehans are spearheading all media and film related projects for Donna Karan’s groundbreaking healthcare initiative Urban Zen. To date, Richard Gere, Christy Turlington, Michael J. Fox, Demi Moore, Lou Reed, Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra, Laurie Anderson, Edie Falco and a who’s who of medical experts from both the Western and Eastern medical worlds have joined the effort to help Donna Karan’s dream of improving the healthcare system. To date, there have been many short film projects connected to this initiative, with a longer form film project in the works.

He is currently in pre-production for two feature films. “Standing 8” a multi-generational look at redemption, hope and forgiveness set in Brooklyn New York, and “Cayman Went” another character study of a man becoming self-aware set on the small island of Cayman Brac. Although the two films are similar in that they explore the human spirit they could not be set in two very different visual settings.

Sheehan has also wrote and produced “The Talent Collector” for AMC and the reality series “Repo Men” starring, Vincent Pastore, aka Big Pussy from the Sopranos, for TLC and Discovery Networks.

Sheehan’s short film "Customs of the Country", based on a short story by writer Madison Smartt Bell was a film festival success, winning more than one first prize award. His television career also includes directing the Viacom series "Johnny Time", starring comedian John Kassir. Sheehan has acted off-Broadway, taught acting workshops and starred as David Conover, the photographer who first photographed Norma Jean Dougherty in a television docudrama about Marilyn Monroe called “Discovering Norma Jean”.

To date, Sheehan has directed over 600 commercials, which have been shot in locations spanning the globe and has created a diverse portfolio of photographic images.