/Ricardo Barros
Ricardo Barros
Blue Planet
Inspired by: Harold Edgerton, Milkdrop Coronet
360-degree panoramic photograph
28″ x 28″
2021
Harold Edgerton used high-speed strobes to freeze time. His photograph of a milk drop was made in an instant. “Blue Planet” required many minutes to complete and depicts the thawing of frozen space. We both photographed something familiar: he milk, me a basketball court. He chose a red palette, warming his composition; I chose the blue coolness of a winter sky. He could not see WHAT his camera saw, and I could not see HOW my camera saw. We discovered what we had well after we had photographed. And we both marveled at the imperfect, concentric symmetry of our subjects.
www.ricardobarros.com
Heather Barros
Ricardo Barros
In Conversation
photograph, digital print and pastel (with Heather’s oil paintings pictured)
27″ x 34″
2024
Heather had the concept of my photographing an ’empty’ space in our home, which she would paint or draw on the print. I discovered beautiful light raking across our dining room table and casting a chair shadow onto the wall. This raking light echoed that of her oil painting of a chair, also on the wall. I digitally removed a flower vase on the table, and she replaced it with a pastel drawing of Queen Anne’s Lace. Her pastel rendering claimed the original vase’s shadow as its own, creating an additional layer of our conversation through artwork.
Ricardo Barros
Family Portrait (Miniature)
360-degree photograph in handmade black walnut frame
6.5″ x 9.75″
2022/2024
This was our dining room in New Jersey. Heather painted portraits of everyone in our family.
www.ricardobarros.com
Ricardo Barros
Two Nudes (Backs)
photography
3.75″ x 5″
Project completed 2020, image printed 2023.
FIGURING SPACE: I used the figure in a constrained environment to explore how one might photograph “space.” My space was a box exactly matching my viewfinder proportions. Knowing that space can’t be seen or touched, I used my box as a delimiter manifesting a particular space, models as my avatars, and space as a metaphor. The images were ultimately assembled into a short video. The prints have not yet been exhibited.
Ricardo Barros
My Mother, My Sister, and My Wife
photograph, archival digital print on cotton rag paper
20″ x 24″
2016
These hands belong to my mother, my sister, and my wife. They remind me of my place in the world, and my dependency on the people I love.
Ricardo Barros
Three Photographers Honor a Fourth: Stephen DiRado, Frank Armstrong, Ricardo Barros – After Jules Aarons
Inspired by: Jules Aarons, West End Meat Market
photograph, digital print on cotton rag paper
20″ x 24″ (framed)
2023
Three Photographers Honor a Fourth: Stephen DiRado, Frank Armstrong, Ricardo Barros – After Jules Aarons. Jules Aarons is known for his mid-century photographs of immigrants in Boston’s West End. He often photographed from a distance; his presence was acknowledged yet unobtrusive. He had an appreciative eye for cultural heritage. Fitchburg, where I now live, boasts a similar richness in history and ethnic diversity. If renewed prosperity has thus far eluded Fitchburg, adding resident artists to the mix may be its salvation. I pay homage to Jules Aarons’ work with this photograph and invite other artists to explore Fitchburg’s potential.