Photography
Brooklyn Bridge, 1983, Silver dye bleach photograph (Cibachrome), image/sheet: 20 x 40 in. (50.8 x 101.6 cm). Collection of the Brooklyn Museum, Carll H. de Silver Fund, 84.26.3.
In 1985, with the birth of her son, Barr broadened her palette to include photography and alternative media. She was an early patrician of Cibachrome. She became an innovator in creating site-specific public art installations that welded photography and glass tiles. Her subsequent exploration of architecture, particularly the panoramic views of bridges and skyscrapers of Manhattan, resulted in Barr creating some of the most iconic photographs of New York. She was featured in an ABC Special called The World of Photography.
In 1995, Barr was commissioned to create Twilight Interlude for the Mobile Infirmary Medical Center, Mobile, AL. The 10 x 74 in photo-mural, composed of glass-photo tiles, earned the distinction of being listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest photograph in the world. Other public commissions can be found at: the John F. Kennedy Airport, New York, Penn Station, New York, the Columbus Circle station, MTA Subway, New York, Mobile Infirmary Medical Center, Alabama, and the Bellevue and Goldwater Hospitals, New York, to name a few.
Selected group exhibitions include: Center for Photography, New York (1990), The International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum, Missouri (1987).
Washington Statue at Federal Hall, Wall Street (1995) 7 x 20 in, silver print, Fuji 6x17 camera
The George Washington statue by John Quincy Adams Ward was unveiled in 1883 to commemorate the inauguration of our first President - George Washington. In 1789, Federal Hall, which served as the capitol building of the United States, stood on the site, and Washington took the oath of office on the balcony of that building, approximately where the statue now stands.
This photo is taken from the viewpoint of Washington who looks out onto the caverns of the Financial District, the image contrasts the founding of the United States in NYC with its identity as a capitol of commerce—viewing the older buildings with pillars and lintels alongside the towering office buildings, Barr purposefully avoided including the street level, instead invoking the weightiness of architecture and sculpture, with the only hint of its date given by the tops of streetlights and the only color eminating from the slightly obscured flags.
