Clive Barda

Clive Blackmore Barda OBE, FRSA (born 14 January 1945) is a London-based, British freelance photographer[1] best known for capturing the performances of classical musicians and artists of the stage (opera, ballet and theatre). During his career spanning over five decades, Barda has created a collection of over a million photographs of performers, composers, and conductors.

Clive Barda
Clive Barda with cameras in 2014
Born (1945-01-14) 14 January 1945
OccupationPhotographer
Years active1968–present
Spouse(s)Rosalind Mary Whiteley
(1970–present)
Children3 sons
Awards
Websitewww.clivebarda.com

Early life

Barda was born in 1945 and spent his early childhood in Alexandria, Egypt, where his father was a lawyer and his mother a painter. The family returned to England in 1956.[2]:4 Barda attended Bryanston School and graduated from Birkbeck College, University of London (BA Hons Modern Langs),[3] aspiring to apply his knowledge of modern languages as a commodities broker in the City.[4]:19 His early interest in photography was mostly documentary; while studying for his degree, he travelled to Romania to photograph the painted monasteries of Moldavia.[4]:20 When he was twenty, following a friend's suggestion, he attended his first concert of classical music: an evening of Viennese music conducted by John Barbirolli. Soon after, he started attending concerts several times per week, and listening regularly to BBC Radio 3.[4]:20

Career

Barda decided to combine his interests in photography and classical music, and a chance encounter with a journalist for South Wales Magazine led to his first commission: photographing the harpist Susan Drake at home, on 12 November 1968.[4]:21[5] At the time, Drake's husband, John Wilbraham,[6] was recording the Haydn and Hummel trumpet concertos and the producer asked Barda to shoot the album's sleeve.[7] Drake then showed Barda's work to her agent, who recommended him to other artists, thus opening up opportunities for further engagements.[4]:21 Within a few months, Barda had his big break:

In 1969, I went to a concert at London's South Bank, where pianist Daniel Barenboim and the cellist Jacqueline du Pré were playing Beethoven sonatas. (...) Barenboim was the most famous musician I had come close to and I decided to ask if I could photograph him conducting. To my amazement, Barenboim said "OK".

— Clive Barda, Performance! Musicians in Photographs, "An Interview with Clive Barda" by Graeme Kay

The rehearsal took place at the Queen Elizabeth Hall the following Tuesday, and Barda showed the resulting contact sheets to Barenboim a few days later, in the Royal Festival Hall's green room. There, he also met Peter Andry, a senior executive at EMI, who suggested that Barda show his pictures to the art department at EMI. This immediately led to Barda's first major commission: to photograph Yehudi Menuhin, at EMI's No. 1 Studio, Abbey Road.[4]:21

Sarah Beth Briggs (29 September 2010) by Barda

During the following decades, Barda has portrayed the world's leading classical musicians, as well as performers in opera, dance, theatre and musicals,[8] as a freelance photographer.[9] In her review of Barda's book Performance! (2000) for The Guardian, Charlotte Higgins stated:

Over the past 30 years, Barda has photographed anyone who is anyone in music, from late, great luminaries such as Lucia Popp, Olivier Messiaen, Benjamin Britten and Charles Groves to today's young stars such as Evgeny Kissin, David Daniels and Cecilia Bartoli.

— Charlotte Higgins, The classical picture show[8]

Barda has been closely associated with major British locations, such as the Barbican Hall, Edinburgh International Festival, English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Her Majesty's Theatre, National Theatre, Opera North, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Queen's Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Royal Opera House, Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon, St John's, Smith Square, Usher Hall, and Welsh National Opera.[4][10]

He has also worked abroad: in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, the U.S., and China. He has taken photographs during rehearsals and recordings in the studios of AIR Studios, the BBC, CBS, EMI's Abbey Road Studios, Olympic Studios, among others, as well as at the home venues of major orchestras such as the LSO.[4][10]

By 2012, Barda had already produced more than a million photographs,[11]:6 and has been referred to as the doyen of British music photography.[12]

Method
Scott Ellaway conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra in Guildford (18 March 2006) by Barda

When commissioned for a project, Barda asks what music will be played, since it is his understanding of the piece that will enable him to anticipate the decisive split second at which a good picture might be taken. As he explained: "Music is constantly punctuated. (...) There are narrative passages, there are peaks and troughs. The pictures occur at the peaks, the climaxes. Even if you don't know the music—though it helps if you do—you develop a sixth sense for these highs."[8]

Vladimir Ashkenazy has stated that one of the secrets of Barda’s success "is his rare gift of being unnoticed, discreet and unobtrusive while doing his work."[4]:7

The fact that I often spent hours with the artists and was perceived as a member of the recording team fed into my work in a number of ways (...) bolstering my sense of affinity with the musicians and their work.

— Clive Barda, Performance! Musicians in Photographs, "An Interview with Clive Barda" by Graeme Kay

Personal life

In 1970, Barda married Rosalind Mary Whiteley; they have three sons.[3]

Exhibitions

After a decade as a professional photographer, Barda began to exhibit his work, in the UK and abroad:

Collections

In 1990, Barda founded the Performing Arts Library (PAL), to showcase his own collection and the work of other photographers specializing in the arts.[4]:19 This project evolved into ArenaPAL in 1997.

Barda's work is also held in the following public collections:[19]

Publications

Books by Barda
  • Barda, Clive (1996). Celebration! Edinburgh International Festival. 50 Years In Photos. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Festival Society. ASIN B00164U1LW.
  • Barda, Clive (2000). Performance! Musicians in Photographs. London: Peter Biddulph. ISBN 978-09520109-4-4.

Books with contributions by Barda
  • Hughes, Graham (1974). Sculpture of David Wynne, 1968-74. Photographs by Clive Barda. London: Phaidon Press. ISBN 978-0-7148-1653-1.
  • Perry, George (1987). The Complete Phantom of the Opera. Photographs by Clive Barda. (first ed.). London: Pavilion Books. ISBN 978-1-85145-226-2.
  • Ganzl, Kurt (1990). The Complete Aspects of Love. Photographs by Clive Barda. (first ed.). London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-670-83192-0.
  • Hart, Charles (1990). The Phantom of the Opera Theatre Programme - Her Majesty's Theatre. Photographs by Clive Barda. London: Cameron Mackintosh. ASIN B005QB1C0K.
  • Leech, Caroline (2006). Welsh National Opera: Celebrating the First 60 Years. Photographs by Clive Barda. Cardiff: Graffeg. ISBN 978-1-905582-00-6.
  • Kahn, Gary (2012). The Power of The Ring - Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Royal Opera House. Photographs by Clive Barda. London: Royal Opera House. ISBN 978-0-946338-04-7.

Selected exhibition catalogues
  • Barda, Clive (2012). Exposure! Retrospective Photographic Exhibition. London: Orange Advertising.
  • Barda, Clive (14 February 2013). Music in Focus — The Ealing Valentine Festival of Music & Film. London.

Filmography
  • Trailer for Philippe Monnet's Clive Barda - Photographer (2012)[22]

Honours
gollark: There.
gollark: I would fix it, but you ran my dev system out of RAM.
gollark: That's the channel field...
gollark: <@!177609550013136897> No longer will we have to suffer your evil rickrolling!
gollark: And done.

See also

References
  1. "Clive Barda". clivebarda.com. 13 April 2016. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
  2. Exhibition leaflet for An Eye for an Ear. Royal Festival Hall, London (1 March – 8 April 1979).
  3. "Artists and photographers". thetimes.co.uk. The Times. 5 January 2004. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  4. Barda, Clive (2000). Performance! Musicians in Photographs. London: Peter Biddulph. ISBN 978-0952-01094-4.
  5. "Susan Drake". hyperion-records.co.uk/. Hyperion Records. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
  6. "John Wilbraham". johnwilbraham.co.uk. Antony Kearns. 2016. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  7. John Wilbraham (1970). JOHN WILBRAHAM Plays Hummel; Albrechtsberger; Leopold Mozart. amazon.co.uk (LP). London: Argo. Retrieved on 6 September 2016.
  8. Higgins, Charlotte (15 December 2000). "The classical picture show". theguardian.com. The Guardian. Retrieved 29 August 2016. Clive Barda has been photographing the great and good of classical music for more than three decades, shooting 750,000 pictures.
  9. Who's Who. oxfordindex.oup.com. Oxford: OUP Oxford. 2015. ISBN 978-0199-54088-4.
  10. Barda, Clive (2012). Exposure! Retrospective Photographic Exhibition. London: Orange Advertising Ltd.
  11. Kay, Graeme (2012). "An interview with Clive Barda". Exposure! Retrospective Photographic Exhibition. London: Peter Biddulph – via Orange Advertising Ltd.
  12. Knight, Bill (March 2019). "Clive Barda – working photographer". photomonitor.co.uk. Photomonitor. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  13. Barda, Clive (14 February 2013). Music in Focus — The Ealing Valentine Festival of Music & Film.
  14. Exhibition leaflet for An Eye for an Ear. Perth Concert Hall, Perth (7 February – 2 March 1981). Hempstead & Associates.
  15. Exhibition leaflet for Bravura!. Wigmore Hall, London (9 March – 10 April 1996).
  16. Exhibition leaflet for Music to the Eye. Nagaoka Lyric Hall, Japan (3 November – 23 December 1996).
  17. Exhibition leaflet for Black & White Photography. The Van Ludwig Art Gallery, Dorking, England (17 May – 22 June 2003).
  18. Higgins, Charlotte (28 March 2005). "Permanent show opens of photographer's portraits". theguardian.com. The Guardian. Retrieved 10 November 2016. A permanent exhibition of 38 of Barda's photos is to be unveiled tomorrow in the Bechstein Room of the Wigmore Hall in London, each depicting a regular "Wigmore artist"...
  19. Butler, Lottie (6 September 2012). "Major retrospective planned of the work of photographer Clive Barda". roh.org.uk. Royal Opera House. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  20. "Exposure! Clive Barda - A Retrospective Photographic Exhibition". mask9.com. Macao Cultural Institute. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  21. Russell, Michael (24 January 2013). "Globally acclaimed photographer to hold exhibition". getwestlondon.co.uk. Get West London. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  22. Philippe Monnet (5 February 2012). Trailer for Philippe Monnet's Clive Barda - Photographer (Trailer). London: dailymotion.com. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  23. "New Year's Honours 2016: CSV". www.gov.uk. UK Cabinet Office. 30 December 2015. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
  24. Wright, Katy (15 July 2016). "Clive Barda receives 2016 Musicians' Company fellowship". rhinegold.co.uk. Rhinegold Publishing. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
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