photos by Barry McWayne

Phone/Fax 907-479-2107
jbarker@icefog.net
4700 Drake St.
Fairbanks, Alaska 99709

Freelance photographer, since 1971
Affiliated with the University of Alaska Museum

I am a commercial photographer, photojournalist, and author skilled in documenting people who live and work in the Polar Regions under challenging conditions. I am best known for my photo essays and book on Alaska Native people, and for my photographs documenting scientific research and support staff in Antarctica. I came to Alaska in 1974 after studying at the Art Center School in Los Angeles and doing a number of years of free lance, commercial and scientific photography in the Bay area and Washington State. I live with my son, Eric and wife, Robin, who, at times, collaborates with me as a writer.

Major Projects and Publications:

Always Getting Ready: Yup'ik Eskimo subsistence in Western Alaska- University of Washington Press, 1993. Ninety-three photographs and a 40,000-word text showing villagers in an annual cycle of subsistence activities, now in its 3rd printing

The Long Cold Journey of Ice Station Sheba- Smithsonian Magazine, September 1998. Photographs for a feature article on scientists conducting climate change studies from an icebreaker located on the polar ice cap, 300 miles north of Alaska

Resident Artist, Antarctica- I have been awarded two grants from the National Science Foundation in the Artists and Writers Program to document scientists and support staff in the U.S. mission in Antarctica. I spent the 1996 and 1998 seasons at U.S. stations and outlying field camps

Curator of photography for Crossroads Alaska- Smithsonian Institute's major 1994 exhibition on Native peoples of Alaska and Siberia

Grants and Awards:

1973

Time/Life magazine, photo essay competition, 2nd place

1998

Time/Life Eisenstaedt Awards finalist

A number of grants from the Alaska State Council on the Arts, and the Alaska Humanities Forum

Teaching:

Visiting Instructor of photography, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1987/88 and as an occasional adjunct in years since

Major Individual Exhibits:

1995

Field Museum, Chicago

1995

Smithsonian, National Museum of American Indian, New York

1998

Museum of Arts and Sciences, San Francisco

All major Museums in Alaska