Barbara Ess | |
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| Born | Barbara Eileen Schwartz (1944-04-04)April 4, 1944 |
| Died | March 4, 2021(2021-03-04) (aged 76) |
| Education | University of Michigan London Film School |
| Known for | large-scale pinhole photography post-punkno wave music |
| Partner | Glenn Branca |
| Awards | National Endowment for the Arts Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation |
Barbara Ess (bornBarbara Eileen Schwartz; April 4, 1944 – March 4, 2021)[1][2] was an Americanpinhole camera photographer,No Wave musician andJust Another Asshole editor. She taught photography atBard College since 1997; who in 2024, along with the Schwartz family, has established an annual award to assist Bard College photography students in need called The Barbara Ess Fund for Artistic Expression in Photography.[3]
Ess earned a B.A. at theUniversity of Michigan inAnn Arbor and attended theLondon Film School.[2]
Ess was known primarily for her large-scale ambient and shadowy photographs that were often made with apinhole camera. They usually were printed with just one earthy color, such as amber, or muted blue-black. They are shown internationally in solo and group exhibitions and reviewed extensively.
Her images are intentionally left vague and unresolved. As such, they initiate a range of emotions from dream anxiety and helplessness, to being captivated by a fantasy and the romantic aesthetic quality of her old-fashioned pinhole method.[4] Her pictures hark back to the nineteenth-century approach to fine-art photography known asPictorialism and to the well-known amateur photographerJulia Margaret Cameron. The Pictorialists and Cameron often included nature, women, and children as subject matter, creatingtableau vivant imagery that evoked moody, open-ended narratives. Ess received grants from LINE, Creative Artists Public Service Program, and Kitchen Media, and fellowships from Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation and theNational Endowment for the Arts (photography).
An early solo exhibition of her photography work was presented at TheNew Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City in 1985, the same year she participated in a group exhibition entitledCurrents that was held at theInstitute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Ess also had a solo exhibition at TheHigh Museum of Art in Atlanta in 1992 and one in 2003 at theMoore College of Art inPhiladelphia.[5] Other significant group shows that she participated in werePostmodern Prints atVictoria and Albert Museum in London in 1991 and theBowery Tribute that was held at The New Museum of Contemporary Art in 2010. Posthumously, her photography work has been included in the exhibitionWho You Staring At: Visual culture of theno wave scene in the 1970s and 1980s that was at theCentre Pompidou in Paris in 2023.[6]
Of her intent as a photographer, Ess said "In a way I try to photograph what cannot be photographed."[7]
Ess performed and recordedpost-punk music with bands starting in 1978, includingThe Static,Disband,Y Pants and Ultra Vulva.[8] She often performed at art galleries, at theMudd Club and atTier 3. Ess remained musically active throughout the 1980s, contributing tracks toTellus Audio Cassette Magazine and collaborating in 2001 with filmmakerPeggy Ahwesh onRadio Guitar that was first published by theEcstatic Peace!record label.Radio Guitar was re-published in 2004 by theTable of the Elements label.[9]
Just Another Asshole was ano wave mixed media publication project launched from theLower East Side of Manhattan from 1978 to 1987.[2] Barbara Ess organized and edited seven issues of Just Another Asshole, which formed thanks to an open, collaborative submission process.[10] Issues 3 and 4 were co-edited by Jane Sherry and issues 5 through 7 were co-edited byGlenn Branca. Issue formats include: zine, LP record, large format tabloid, magazine, exhibition catalog, and paperback book.[11]
The Estate of Barbara Ess is represented by the New York City gallery Magenta Plains.[12]
Ess' work is in the collections of theMuseum of Modern Art, theMuseum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, theWhitney Museum of American Art, theCentre Pompidou and theSan Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others.[2]
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