In the 'Arts' section of today's Cape Times, Suzy Bell writes eloquently about Andrew Barker's "chemical dreams" revealing subtle layers of this photographer's processes and vision.
"My intention, in this current work, is to show the use of a range of experimental procedures and ways of looking, which I hope may enhance my work and medium," says Barker.
Barker's fascination with the historical chemical printing processes may definitely influence the way he interprets his dreams but it is also his commitment to photographic traditions of the past that lends more to his final 'assemblages'. "It is my personal quest to confront the slowness of my cameras and the working methods I choose. I use older cameras... because it teaches me to understand more about my life, my sense of presence, and about the alchemical process of making and changing - to change within myself, and to change this thing now called photography," continues Barker. "I do not take pictures as such, I feel I construct them painstakingly. The process is using a camera as big as my torso..."
Despite the fact that Barker does not consider himself Zen, his professional and spiritual philosophies weave together with apparent ease when he says, "I just work with my heart. Only then do the images become iconographic in their indigenous beauty... Mine [photographs] are more experimental procedures, which teaches me about suppleness and flexibility in my humanness. The cumbersome and slow equipment teaches me to slow down and enjoy 'the grand ride'. I believe in that expression that 'any artist does not know what reality is; let alone how to affect it'. I have a different experience. That is all that matters to me."
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