My interest in making photographs has always been about SEEING beyond the surface to the more basic bare bones essence of the subject. The great photographers of the last century – Edward Weston, Alfred Stieglitz, Minor White, and Ansel Adams among others – all had the ability to SEE the more essential mystery of the subject. Both Stieglitz and Adams spoke of the “equivalence” they sought with their photographs. Their intent was that the photograph would evoke an “equivalent” experience of the mystery in the subject for the beholder.

At times over the last 40 years I have found myself on sacred ground, invited to step into an eternal moment, when the subject of my attention drops the veil and entrances me with its mystery. During these moments I am charged with energy and experience an overflowing delight of my own mystery.

My photographs are meant to awaken in the beholder his or her deepest knowing and point the way to SEEING beyond surface effects to the mystery that underlies and pervades all things.

Thomas Barber