Robert Hansen was born in 1952 in Des Moines, Iowa. He graduated from Drake University with a BS in marketing and a minor in accounting in 1975. In 1976 he attended Brooks Institute of Photography and soon received the Thiesen Scholarship Award for excellence in photojournalism. He graduated with an Associate degree from Brooks in 1978.

Robert started his commercial photography business in 1979 as a custom lab owner and printer. At the same time, he specialized in architectural, small product and editorial portraiture photography. His architectural images have won many design awards for clients in the Southern California area.

Since 1991 Robert has taught photographic workshops throughout the Southwest and in Mexico. He also offers personal instruction in portfolio design and digital processes. Robert also has designed and produced custom portfolios and books for clients. His work with Wallace Neff Jr. was first published in 1987 and recently his large format portfolio on the architecture of Wallace Neff was presented at The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

Robert's fine art photography is part of numerous private, commercial and museum collections throughout the United States, Germany and Mexico. In 2004, Laguna Wilderness Press published his 10-year Mexican photography project as Yucatán Passages; a portfolio from that book is a part of the collections of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Yucatán and The Huntington Library.

In 2009, Robert was commissioned by the United States Navy to photograph the ancient Indian rock art on the Naval Weapons Base at China Lake, Ridgecrest, California. Over 36 pieces were selected for permanent display at the base. Every year since 1978, the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts has included Robert Hansen's photography in this juried venue voted "one the top ten art festivals in America" by American Style magazine.