Edward Barber

This morning, I learned that photographer Ed Barber died yesterday. Within a month cancer has claimed him. I've just found out and I feel desolate.

Ed Barber speaking at the IWM, 2016

Ed's work has featured many times on this blog, most recently his Peace Signs exhibition last year at the Imperial War Museum. Ed was passionate about life; he was nonconformist, a liberal, rebellious, a maverick and I would say an iconoclast but he'd not like that word! Ed was thoughtful, kind and fun. He was my friend.

Aside from being a photographer, Ed was a father and husband and my thoughts are with his daughters Nina and Sonya and his wife Danny.

http://edwardbarber.net/
http://concreteed.blogspot.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.01.2017

Updated 21.02.2017

Obituary by Peter Kennard in the British Journal of Photography, .

http://www.bjp-online.com/2017/02/barberobit/



Peace Signs

In May, I wrote about the opening of an exhibition at the Imperial War Museum called Peace Signs , by the photographer Edward Barber and I was pleased to have been invited to the opening. http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/peace-signs-by-edward-barber.html



This is the simple piece of literature which accompanies the exhibition.  It's a well designed, beautifully produced piece of print with high impact. The finished size is 152x108mm folding out to a flat size of 304x434mm.

The mono image is printed with a border of  'nuclear' yellow which reflects the colour used on the walls in the exhibition. There is one image on the front...

...on the reverse is an image of the graphic installation entitled the Mind Map of Anti-Nuclear Protest, created by Danielle Inga and Edward Barber specifically for this exhibition. It's folded as a map fold - concertina and then folded over.

Click on Images to enlarge

One thing which is almost impossible to convey is that it's been printed on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm. It is superbly light and has a great "rattle" which it's just not possible to convey in pictures. It folds and handles beautifully.

You probably won't be able to guess, or even believe, is that it's digitally printed! The job was printed and finished by a digital print company called Typecast Colour, based in Paddock Wood, Kent. It was printed on their Xerox digital press and the result is superb. Printing digitally printing the limited run viable - even on a material such as this, which many litho printers are scared of!...just look at the print result.

...and there is an interesting story as well. Fran De'Ath is the lady in the main photograph and she was interviewed for The Guardian last month for their series called "That's me in the picture"
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/aug/12/one-person-picket-fran-death-protests-greenham-common



If you want to see the exhibition, you'll have to hurry as it finishes tomorrow (4th September)

http://www.iwm.org.uk/exhibitions/iwm-london/iwm-contemporary-edward-barber
http://edwardbarber.net/
http://concreteed.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.typecast.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.09..2016

Peace Signs by Edward Barber

I was very pleased to be invited to the viewing of Edward Barber's exhibition 'Peace Signs' which opened at the Imperial War Museum contemporary space on Wednesday. Ed Barber is a photographic artist, specialising in images of people and their relationship to space and environment. He is best known for his portraiture, through major projects such as All Dressed Up, In the City and Resolve. He is one of the few photographers to have their work displayed and in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. He is also a designer, curator and teacher, and was formerly Subject Director for Fashion Photography at the London College of Fashion.

Ed recorded major protests staged at key sites such as RAF/USAF Greenham Common, Westminster, Trafalgar Square and the City of London. The body of work is a unique social document of mass popular protest in late twentieth century Britain which has rarely been seen in public since it was first published in 1984.

Peace Signs, Barber’s collected body of work, was originally taken to attract media attention to the anti-nuclear movement. The exhibition explores these protests as multi-generational and distinctly British forms of self-expression. Illuminating the activists’ humour and creativity, these images create a social record of both individual and collective responses to war. The photographs capture hand-rendered signs, banners, badges, clothing, make-up and costumes, and illustrate the often overlooked role of performance theatre, folk art and fashion at peace camps and demonstrations.

The display, with the background painted in 'nuclear' yellow, offers a fresh interpretation of the images, the photographs are contextualised by a graphic installation entitled Mind Map of Anti-Nuclear Protest, created by Danielle Inga and Edward Barber specifically for this exhibition. The Mind Map traces his contemporary re-evaluation of the events he captured in the 1980s - see below pic. Unfortunately my picture doesn't do justice - so you'll have to go and see it for yourself! The exhibition runs until 4th September.

http://www.iwm.org.uk/exhibitions/iwm-london/iwm-contemporary-edward-barber

http://edwardbarber.net/
http://concreteed.blogspot.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.05.2016

RESOLVE

This book is a photographic study by Edward Barber with an essay by Danielle Inga. The introduction perfectly sums up the content of the publication: "Resolve: An intimate survey of work is a photographic study of a wider, burgeoning social movement, acknowledging and celebrating a highly significant yet almost invisible workforce. Individuals are linked through their own personal sense of resolve to persist and remain tenacious in their chosen field. This is not an exhaustive survey but and opportunity to start a dialogue about the nature of work in the twenty first century"

The book contains forty portraits of people working in a diverse range of occupations from Jeweller to textile trader, baker, shoe retailer, medical herbalist etc, The one thing these subjects have in common is that they all work for themselves.



The book is 270x210mm, portrait, and is section sewn. The 96pp text is printed on our Omnia 150gsm and as you can see from the above images, there is lots of colour going down  - loads of ink and it looks great on the Omnia, while still retaining a tactile uncoated look and feel.

Introduction and the essay

This 'limpbound' book has a cover on Colorset Flint 350gsm, which is hot foil blocked in black gloss foil. Below you can see the front cover of the book sitting inside the 'book-jacket' which is also printed on Omnia 150gsm

Inside the cover, there is a 2pp 'tipped-in' flysheet on our Colorset 120gsm and which is completely unprinted. This is a really cost effective way to increase production values and very little cost. By including a sheet like this in the publication, it reinforces value but because it isn't being printed or processed in any way, the only cost is the paper, no overs involved or the cost of printing.

Images showing 2pp unprinted flysheet which appears both at the front and the back.

The below image shows the 12mm spine and the way that the book-jacket wraps snuggly around the section sewn binding.

Ed Barber is a photographic artist, specialising in images of people and their relationship to space and environment. He is best known for his portraiture, through major projects such as Peace Moves, All Dressed Up, In the City. He is one of the few photographers to have their work displayed and in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

Design is by SampsonMay with the typography by Liam Weyell.

ALSO today (election day)  is particular apt day to be posting this project. Ed's response to the General Election countdown was to post an image every day on Visual Athletics Club - for the last 100 days http://visualathleticsclub.blogspot.co.uk/

Printing, including the hot foil blocking on the cover, is by Ambrose Press. Jonathan Savory handled the project. Particular care has been taken over the repro - as with all projects for photographers, there is detail in the images which can only be appreciated by the photographer and it is the skill of the printer to be able to listen and interpret these comments in the finished printed job. Not always easy to do but this is a beautiful piece of printed literature.

http://edwardbarber.net/
http://concreteed.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.sampsonmay.com/
http://www.ambrosepress.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.05.2015

Presence - Portraits by Edward Barber

Edward Barber is a photographic artist, specialising in images of people and their relationship to space and environment. Barber is best known for his portraiture, through major projects such as Peace Moves, All Dressed Up, In the City and 15:18 Teenagers in their Rooms. He has the rare distinction of being one of the few photographers to have their work displayed and in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

Until recently Ed was the Director of Programmes for Fashion Photography at London College of Fashion and ran the BA (Hons) Fashion Photography course. He has now left full time lecturing and returned to life as a working photographer.

This simple piece of literature is to show a series of portraits. Titled 'Presence', because that is what all of the subjects have, it is a simple format showing eight portraits.

The format is a very simple 16pp broadsheet, designed in such a way that it opens easily and displays the maximum number of useable printed panels. Technically I believe it should be described as a '16pp parallel double fold'.

Size is 450x632mm, flat folding to 230x160mm, portrait. This birds eye view should give you the best idea of the format and the way it works.

The below image is the first spread:

which concertinas out to show the series of four images titled 'The Dancers' [Please note above and below the printed image which you can just see appearing to the bottom and side]

In what is effectively the centre spread, two images The Artist and The Actor are shown - again you can see the image below on the left hand side:

The broadsheet opens to reveal this amazing full size image 'The Interior Designer'. The paper chosen is our Omnia 120gsm because it would work with the rich detail that is present in the images but that would give a natural look and tactile feel. It is printed offset litho in four colour process (CMYK) and the black and white images are particularly impressive as the tone is consistent.

The reason I keep referring to the way that you can see an image 'poking out' is because the fold is asymmetrical and allows 10mm to show, which is a brilliant way of revealing that there is something more to come without giving anything away ...very clever!

Concept and design is by Ed Barber and Danielle Inga.

The printing and finishing is by Jigsaw Colour and is excellent. Always a challenge for a printer when the client is a photographer!

http://edwardbarber.net/
http://concreteed.blogspot.co.uk/
www.jigsawcolour.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 13.10.2014