January Issue 2001
City Art in Columbia, SC, Hosts Exhibit of Photographs by Will Barnes
Sequence
96/Seeing the Blues is an exhibition
of black and white images by photographic artist Will Barnes.
The show will be on display in the main gallery at City Art in
Columbia, SC, from Feb. 10 through Mar. 10.
For twenty years Barnes worked as a professional photographer. Then, in the fall of 1996, he was in a car wreck. "As a result of that my life changed drastically," says Barnes. "Normally the fall is a very beautiful time of the year for light, because the air is very clear and the sun's gone to a lower angle. You get a very pretty light, but I just could not see it that year." He had lost his wife, who died in the wreck, his mobility and his ability to earn a living. Barnes says, "I kept thinking, is it going to be this way forever now? Will I ever get back to where I can see the beauty around me that light creates?" The exhibit Seeing the Blues reflects this time in Barnes' life and his journey of recovery.
In his darkroom, Barnes laughs as he examines
a print of a small, black dog in a golf cart. This recent photograph,
taken in Bethune, SC, gets placed with a stack of similar scenes
from South Carolina's small towns. This is one of Barnes' current
projects, since he has been rebuilding his life. "I'm feeling
strong again as an artist," he says. "I've been photographing
since the accident, but I just never felt ready to make a statement
about what I've been through. Now I'm ready to do that."
Barnes says the City Art exhibit will help him achieve closure about his past. Most of the images in the exhibition were photographed in rural areas near Columbia, SC. They were taken with a large format camera producing enlargements from mostly eight-by-ten-inch negatives.
"If you look at the images in this show,
you will see a repetition of certain motifs," says Barnes,
who has been using the technique of sequencing. "You can
take images that weren't necessarily made in chronological order,
and yet you can tell a story. Some of it is just visual play,
how one image will visually play off of another. Things go through
a dramatic change. Humans call that 'death' when it changes in
a way that we see it as no longer being alive. In the show, you'll
see things that are no longer useful in a utilitarian sense, like
the old radio. To me it still symbolizes and talks about communication.
Then there are old buildings and houses. It's funny how a human
being can see a fireplace left over from an old house and there's
a connection there. That was a dwelling place. That was a nest
for somebody."
Barnes has been creating fine art photographs since 1979. In 1985, he received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the prestigious Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), training under Owen Butler who studied with Minor White. Barnes claims that these artists influenced him both technically and visually. Barnes' recent work includes an image of South Carolina's Congaree Swamp which won first place for juried professional photographs at the 2000 SC State Fair Fine Art Exhibition. For the Richland-Lexington Cultural Council, he decorated a steel Palmetto Tree with scenes from SC small towns. Additionally, one of the Richland-Lexington Cultural Council's Street Gallery billboards displays one of his many photographs of the Saluda River. Also, Barnes' work has been shown in numerous galleries and museums including Ledel in New York City, Coral Gables and most major museums in South Carolina. His work is in the SC State Art Collection and many public and private collections. Barnes has most recently been juried into an exhibition entitled "Abstraction for a New Millennium". The juror of record is Ann Elegood, curator of the newly founded Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City. The show is an international collection and will hang through Jan. 28, 2001 at the Stage Gallery in Merrick, NY.
In 1986, Barnes published a book of photographs of Columbia for the city's 200th anniversary. In the introduction, McKissick Museum Curator Lynn Myers promised that the viewer "will find Will Barnes a perceptive image maker, for Barnes shows us things we might not see." Similarly, author James Dickey wrote of Barnes work: "Mr. Barnes' skill in photography needs only one glance at any given picture of his to confirm itself. Emerson once asked of a poet, 'Is his eye creative?' And I think I may testify that Mr. Barnes' eye is creative indeed; there is no aspect of a person or thing, no angle of vision, no perspective, that does not become dramatic and significant; the view has been given the power to speak for itself as it cannot do without Mr. Barnes."
Standing by his beloved Saluda River, Barnes notices the way the afternoon light dances on the rocks and water. He reflects: "When I feel that I really have seen something down to the essence of it, then I just function as a technician and record that with the camera. I, as an individual, cease to exist. When I get done and I fold my tripod up and put my camera on my shoulder, I have to come back to myself. Okay, it's Tuesday. It's 3:00 in the afternoon. For me, it's a deeply spiritual experience."
Limited edition prints of images seen at the
City Art exhibition will be available for sale.
For further information check our SC Commercial Gallery listings
or call City Art at 803/252-3613 or check them out on the web
at (http://www.cityartonline.com).
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer
427, Bonneau, SC 29431
Telephone, Answering Machine and FAX: 843/825-3408
E-Mail: carolinart@aol.com
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