Iris Gallery -About Barbara Cole

aaaa“What I am doing today surprises nobody more than myself”, claims Barbara Cole, a self-taught Toronto based photographic artist who has built an extraordinary career in image making over the past two decades. Since dropping out of high school to discover what it was she wanted to do, it seems that photography found her, identified her and ultimately saved her. Working as a model in her teens, Barbara was offered a job a as fashion editor for a then fledgling daily newspaper, “The Toronto Sun.” That led into an opportunity to shoot the weekly fashion spreads. Barbara used this time to develop her skills enough to open her own photographic studio in the early eighties. “Sara Moon was by far my greatest photographic influence,” she said when asked about her photographic influences. “I think her eye is original and brave and cutting edge. Lucien Freud is probably the second most important influence who entered my life when I was experimenting with Polaroid’s SX-70 camera. In the 1980s I loved Dominique Isserman’s work.” Cole says her artwork heavily influences her commercial images, but she concedes that it’s the commercial work that forces her to be a more technically astute photographer

aaaaThe images from Underworld make up her latest touring exhibit and have been shown in Tokyo, Toronto, and Washington, D.C. “I am a swimmer and the Underworld series was an attempt to capture what I see.”

aaaa“Photography found me, captivated me and ultimately saved me. I am totally absorbed by its endless possibilities.” – Barbara Cole