Ronald Dean Corbin was born in 1943 in the city of Salisbury, Maryland. He moved to West Philadelphia in 1956 where he lived before joining the Marine Corps in 1961. He served twenty years in Marine Corps that included the Vietnam War where he was promoted to sergeant. During his service that took him to Japan, he bought his first camera and began to document some of the life around him though these were early days, he was slowly becoming used to photographing people as his main subject matter. Ron cites that he became inspired by the works of Gordon Parks when he first set eyes on the Life magazine that featured Parks work on Malcolm X and the black muslim communities.
In 1981 Ron was introduced to street photography by three friends: Willlie Middlebrook, Calvin Hicks and Donald Bernard. All four men were members of the Bunker Hill Arts League and the Los Angeles Photo Center. Over the course of the 1980s, Ron photographed various locales in and around Los Angeles County, with excursions to Mexico and surrounding towns and cities. His work began with casual street photography that slowly developed into a fascination and focus on the less fortunate inviduals that looked to the city's streets, bridges and abandoned structures as their home. During this time he has various group shows in Los Angeles and a solo show in 1991 at Occidental College, entitled Boyz and Girls Together. Some of his work was purchased as part of a permanent collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
In 1999 Ron returned to Philadelphia where he was immediately drawn to street life in the various neigborhoods of the city that included Kensington, a blue collar section that transformed into a drug haven. The majority of Ron's body of work is concentrated here and continues to be the subject of his exploration of the lives of individuals he claims that many people continue to turn a blind eye towards.
Ron continues to live and photograph in Philadelphia.
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