We love underwater photography. The soft contours and special light and colours in the images as well as the fleeting subjects are fascinating. And it’s even more exciting when fashion and models enter the seemingly weightless underwater world. It is therefore no surprise that we really like the artful production by Canadian photographer Barbara Cole, currently showing at Bau-Xi Gallery Contemporary Fine Art in Toronto. We have pictures from the private view for you.
Barbara on her current project to GoSee: ‘In DUPLICITY, my fifth underwater series since 2003, I am creating a figurative kaleidoscope using the weightlessness of water and the opposing reflections that are created. DUPLICITY takes people on a special journey but because the vision is grounded in clarity the viewer can relax and accept the visual pivot. I enjoy bringing an element of the unexpected to my work I continue this tradition by using the element of reflection transforming the strange into otherworldly beauty. While these photographs may feel romantic, they are equally rooted in the tradition of Surrealism. They reboot how one perceives the figure in space. DUPLICITY engages the viewer in a mental free fall.’
The artist and photographer was born in 1953 and used to work as a model before swapping sides and getting behind the camera in the ‘80s. Besides her underwater photographs, she has made a name for herself with her so-called ‘Lenticulars’, which are layerings of sequences. Barbara won awards at the International Photography Awards in New York as well as receiving the Grand Prize at the Festival Internationale de la Photographie de Mode in Cannes.
BARBARA COLE
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 12 - SEPTEMBER 28