Biography
Barbara Southworth is a printmaking photographer known for landscapes celebrating color, wildness and native diversity. Bridging traditional sensibilities and contemporary aesthetics, her panoramic vision is rooted in the Eastern Seaboard’s maritime and woodland habitats. She lives in Stonington, ME and Alexandria, VA.
Combining twin passions, she graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology with a BFA and from Johns Hopkins with an MS in Environmental Earth Science and Policy. She honed her skills as a black and white printer, color printer, dye transfer printer and studio manager making Iris prints in New York city and around Washington, DC.
Curious about earthly environments from large scale urban infrastructure to gardens, her strongest affinity is for the life-enhancing powers of the least altered places. Her photo practice facilitates connections between people and land and champions environmental engagement.
Success in a print competition led to exhibition in New York and her first artist residency, at the Maine Photo Workshop. Invited to assist with teaching, she now leads outdoor photo forays lasting from three hours to a week, for the Smithsonian Institution, Northern Virginia Community College. In Maine, she has developed weeklong photo-eco tours, which she leads in cooperation with Island Heritage Trust.
Believing in the healing power of landscape and the need to restore and protect environments, it’s natural that health care settings and conservation organizations include her prints in their collections.
Artist Statement
Woods, waters and wetlands inspire me; they are my muse, where I am most at home and who I am, in Maine most of all. My goal is to communicate as truly as, and as much as is visually possible, the whole experience, the ineffable sense, of connecting to a place, its waters, plant life and land forms, its fabric and relationships. I revel in tiny details, small miracles and the grand scheme.
