Creating a retrospective of the past 30 years of my photography.
The simple meaning of retrospective is to look back. Yet in web3, where everything seems to be moving forward at the speed of thought, it seems counterintuitive to look back. Bob Dylan in the 1960’s had the wisdom to say “Don’t look back.” But sometimes this is a key practice to finding my way forward.
As 2022 meandered between its highs and lows, and after a couple successful NFT launches leading to the birth of 96 Studio, I was inspired to look back at the work I created in the beginning of my journey and chart the path forward to the present. What was I looking at when I was just starting out? What or who were my inspirations? Were these early works successful?
I have been making photographs for over thirty years. I started sneaking my camera into concerts and making pictures of the local LA bands and west coast rap artists in the 1980s. The exploration of photography opened up doors to me to scout worlds unknown and I began to bring my camera everywhere for fear of missing something extraordinary- photographer’s FOMO.
In the aughts I moved to Miami Beach after a short stint in San Francisco and this is where my photography practice took shape. Drawn to the beauty of the beaches, crystal clear water, strong light and sculptured bodies, it became the backdrop to everything I shot from 2003-2007. From my commercial work to personal projects, the beach became my studio. This work became the focus of my first NFT project 96° in the Shade.
This lookback, which has been assembled into my retrospective Bring it Home, started with my first experiments with photography. Inspired by pioneers like Walker Evans and Paul Strand and Eugene Atget, I took my camera outside, bearing witness to the humanity in the streets and the architecture of my world. At first I was uncomfortable pointing my camera in the direction of people’s faces (something I would eventually resolve). Having studied graphic design before picking up a camera, I was already drawn to strong forms, tight compositions and the conversation between light and shadow.
I’ll leave this here for now, and in the next piece we’ll take a look at the stories behind some of the people and places in Bring it Home.
-Barry