Robert Wilkinson moved from his native Minnesota to Wyoming, where he found work on a sheep farm. He would spend the rest of his life there, marrying his employer’s widow, who was thirty years his senior. Around the age of 65, he began creating a series of carefully staged photographs placed in frames of his own making, most often carved from wooden orange crates, painted and decorated with a wide variety of materials ranging from crushed shells to volcanic ash. These works include silver gelatin photographs of friends or family members. Wilkinson also used newspaper clippings depicting everyday situations, celebrities, or political figures. According to his grandson’s wife, he created around one hundred and twenty works. He was affectionately nicknamed “Old Bob.”