His sister Valerie Rubsamen was a professor of politics at Swarthmore College (retired) and author of numerous books and articles on media and the state in France.
His father, Walter H. Rubsamen, was a professor of musicology at the University of California, Los Angeles, known primarily for his work on the literary sources of secular music in Italy in the fifteenth century and the history and politics of ballad opera, he traveled extensively for research with grants from various American institutions.
Glen Rubsamen's paintings and photographs are characterized by a documentary interest in compiling, like collectibles, situations in nature of great dramatic intensity in the romantic tradition, such as sunrises and sunsets, exuberant vegetation, or images of the apocalypse.
Through brusque combinations of different perspectives and violent foreshortening of the objects and trees, Rubsamen shows us an uninhabited and almost aggressive world, an assaulted nature that makes us think of the devastating after-effects of a meteorological or technological catastrophe.
These characteristics, combined with the absence of human presence, the tendency towards monochrome and the lack of spatio-temporal references create an atmosphere charged with austere quietude and spirituality.