Barry Barbour-Duncan
Barry Barbour-Duncan cut his first teeth near Hughson California in a farming community called Gratton. Some of his earliest memories are wondering what the heck he was doing there. He had big city dreams so as soon as he could he moved to the big metropolis of Modesto, CA. Didn’t take long before he was in San Francisco where he discovered the joys of hanging out in seedy establishments with people wearing weird clothes and listening to weird music. Barry had finally found his people, and he seemed to be drawn to the oddest of the odd. But do not limit Barry to only relating to the odd. He likes extremes and finds sensitivity, intelligence, and beauty as intriguing as roughness, stupidity and ugliness.
This life of exploration is reflected in Barry’s works. Expect to find rich colors, black and white, fine detail, blur, grain, patterns, people, inanimate objects, animate objects. It is clear what the subject matter is in some of his photography, in others it will take a little more thought. Fun is also an important ingredient in Barry’s work; look for it to see if you also appreciate fun. If you need a label Impressionism weighs heavily in his work.
Barry first discovered his love of photography in the mid 70s and would spend many an hour in the dark seeing what would develop. By the early ‘80s seedy San Francisco and all its funny characters were his subjects. The negatives are still intact; expect them to appear sometime soon. Barry started studying art in Kindergarten and continued studying it up until his first year of community college. He then went a different direction in his formal studies earning a BA in Psychology and an MS in Counseling Psychology from San Francisco State University. Do his psychology studies have an effect on his art? You will have to be the judge.
Barry also works with sound and video under the names Rabid Kangaroo and The Lunch Ladies. This work can be found on Vimeo and Soundcloud.
Barry now splits his time between San Francisco and Palm Springs.
But not to sound too pretentious you can sum Barry’s style as “He likes pretty colors and funny looking things!”
