George Barker (photographer)

George Barker (17 July 1844 – 27 November 1894) was a Canadian-American photographer best known for his photographs of Niagara Falls.

Niagara Falls, by George Barker

Life

Barker was born in London, Ontario in 1844.[1] He first studied landscape painting,[2] switching to photography following a financial setback. He began his photography training with the Western-Canadian photographer James Egan.[3] At the age of 18, he had opened his own studio in London.[4]

Photography career

Niagara Falls

In July 1862, he made his first trip to Niagara Falls, New York, where he found a job working for Platt D. Babbitt.[4][5] By the late 1860s, he had studios in both London and Niagara Falls, with the Niagara studio called Barker's Stereoscopic View Manufactory and Photograph Rooms,[6][7] and had become known nationwide for his large-format (up to 18 in × 20 in (46 cm × 51 cm)) and stereographic prints of the falls.[8] In 1866, he won a gold medal for landscape photography at the convention for the Photographers Association of America, held in Saint Louis.[4]

Barker's Niagara studio was destroyed by fire on February 7, 1870,[9] but his negatives survived.[5]

Florida

Barker was one of the earliest photographers to visit the state of Florida. At the time, photography in Florida was challenging, as much of the state remained undeveloped, which meant photographers needed to carry their bulky equipment through the state's wetlands and subtropical jungles, as well as deal with delicate film in hot and humid conditions. Barker spent nearly four years (on and off), from 1886 to 1890, documenting much of northern and central Florida.[10]

Disasters

In addition to his well-known landscape photographs, Barker traveled the United States, documenting natural disasters such as the Louisville Tornado of 1890[11] and the 1889 Johnstown flood.[12]

Death

When he died in 1894 of Bright's disease,[13] he was described as "the eminent photographer of Niagara Falls".

Collections

Upon his death, his works were acquired by Underwood & Underwood of Washington, D.C.[5]

Additional works are included in the permanent collections of:

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References
  1. Martha A. Sandweiss; Alan Trachtenberg; Amon Carter Museum of Western Art (1991). Photography in nineteenth-century America. Amon Carter Museum. ISBN 978-0-8109-3659-1.
  2. https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.16462.html
  3. Douglas Heil (19 January 2017). The Art of Stereography: Rediscovering Vintage Three-Dimensional Images. McFarland. pp. 262–. ISBN 978-1-4766-2724-3.
  4. Samuel T. Wiley; Winfield Scott Garner (1892). Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Niagara County, New York. Gresham Publishing Company. pp. 180–.
  5. Hannavy, John, ed. (2007-10-15). Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography. 1. CRC Press. pp. 113–14. ISBN 9780415972352. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
  6. "Niagara Falls Reporter Local History". niagarafallsreporter.com.
  7. "George Barker". Smithsonian American Art Museum.
  8. Eisenstadt, Peter R.; Moss, Laura-Eve (2005-06-01). The Encyclopedia Of New York State. Syracuse University Press. p. 1201. ISBN 9780815608080. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
  9. Stereo World. National Stereoscopic Association. 1990.
  10. Hunt, Bruce (2007-09-15). Florida Then & Now. Big Earth Publishing. p. 4. ISBN 9781565795860. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
  11. https://nyx.uky.edu/fa/findingaid/?id=xt7v6w969x17
  12. https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/george-barker
  13. Photographic Times and American Photographer. Scovill Manufacturing Company. 1894. pp. 375–.
  14. "Search Results: "Barker, George, 1844-1894"". Library of Congress.
  15. "George Barker (American, 1844 - 1894) (Getty Museum)". The J. Paul Getty in Los Angeles.
  16. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/290469
  17. https://www.artic.edu/artworks/59762/sunset-horseshoe-fall-niagara
  18. http://www.ago.net/george-barker-niagara-falls
  19. "Search the Collection - The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston". www.mfah.org.
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