As published in (inside) magazine, June 2011.
The visual studies of a curious and wise photographer can be both revealing and full of intrigue. Paul Barbera focuses his lens on interiors, but for other reasons than just pure aesthetics. The place of intimate and creative process is what he seeks. Now having entered more than 90 creative studios across the world, Barbera has prepared a tangible feast – sharing his photographic perspectives with us in a major way.
An assignment cancellation in Milan was the catalyst for Where They Create, an intriguing visual ‘blog’ and personal project of Melbourne-based photographer Paul Barbera – who has spent the last 15 years documenting creative studios around the world. The body of work is a privileged look into the inner working lives of designers, architects, musicians and all those who work in that ubiquitous field of what we consider the ‘creative’ realm. The photo series showcases the interiors of over 90 studios, including that of Opening Ceremony, Olaf Breuning, Wallpaper, Jeremiah Goodman, Cyril Duval and Clive Wilkinson, to name just a few.
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A product of Barbera’s compulsion to document his friends in their studios, the collection of candid still-life images ultimately caught the eye of a renowned Dutch book publisher – known mainly for putting out Frame, Mark and Elephant magazines. Agreeing to an interesting proposal put forth last year, Barbera will now transform his blog into a new book project come September of this year.
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But back to its origin. The impetus for the blog came in the European summer of 2009, when Barbera was in Amsterdam working on a book commission for an interior designer. The job was cancelled just a week before it was scheduled to start and Barbera found himself at a loose end. Finishing up a small photography job, he decided to meet his friend, the artist Jebila Wolfe-Okongwu, in Rome.
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“On that trip he [Jebila] asked me to shoot his studio which I had done many times before,” says Barbera. “Funny thing was that I had been documenting studios for over 15 years. The images just sat on the bottom of my hard drive. With some time up my sleeve, I started the site, and a good friend Michael Nicolaci helped me come up with the name… ‘Where They Create’ just made sense.”
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Shooting creative spaces is, of course, not a new concept, and Barbera is clear to make this distinction. “I do not think it’s unique, I think it’s my take on studios, not really an idea so much, more me documenting the spaces around me.” In over a decade, Barbera has paid tribute to the creative friends around him, using his camera to accentuate what he loves best about them as professionals and their respective work.
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“I am always so surprised by how many people say yes,” he says. “I guess everybody loves to have their space documented.” Though this may be true, the fact that Barbera himself is a creative certainly doesn’t hurt. Add to this his sense of humour and ability to relate to people, and it’s not surprising that he has managed to gain access to even the most private of creative studios.
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“I feel at home very quickly,” he explains, “I’ll sit down and just look around; sometimes I might even stop and start working on my laptop or diary. I feel inspired to work on my own a bit; ideas comes to me so it feels ok to work in other people’s spaces as I feel part of it.”
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A true diplomat, Barbera cannot think of any one studio as a particular highlight. “Every space offers up something I did not expect,” he explains. “An old fax machine holding the door open… or that fact that Washington, Irving, Dickens and Thackeray lived in the same building as the artist Cyril Duval… to the view of a harbour in Hong Kong that can only be seen from that one building.”
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As far as favourite assignments go, Barbera cites his Vogue Living shoot for the 2010 Milan Design Week as one of many. On this particular job, he got to meet his heroes Tom Dixen, Missoni, the Campana Brothers and Tetsuya. But another stand out was the Grazia editorial he did in 2006 on the legendary industrial designer – the late Achille Castiglioni – during which he met Castiglioni’s wife Irma. “It was really lovely to meet her. She had such great style,” he says.
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As a photographer, travel is a natural tool of the trade. It’s where Barbera does much of his work and where he draws much of his inspiration. In the past few years, Barbera has lived a freelancer’s dream, clocking frequent-flyer points between Melbourne and Amsterdam and travelling to all four corners of the globe on assignments.
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But of all destinations, the Melbourne photographer offers the Eastern Bloc city of Warsaw as one of his favourites. “I love the Polish people,” he declares. “There are a lot of misconceptions that there’s not a lot going on there – but there is – and I want to show that.” His photographs of Poland reveal his high regard for the country as an interesting focal point and of course its creative inhabitants.
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Like Warsaw, Barbera explains, the online project offers him the privilege of highlighting aspects of a culture and people he finds interesting, and ultimately the chance to debunk some stereotypes. Where They Create also builds a compelling case for Melbourne as a thriving creative hub still, rather than what some might see as a ‘nascent’ design city. Remarkable photographs of several Melbourne-based studios, including Marc Pascal, 3 Deep Design, Robert Doble, Chris Connell and Nicholas Jones, seem to clearly affirm this notion.
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When asked about his home turf Barbera offers a climate theory to explain why Melbourne is such a creative city. “People in colder climates tend to be creative because there’s not much else to do,” he says. “I also think people outside the centre tend to over compensate. Unfortunately, because we are not at the epicentre, things can be missed… Of course we have our Marc Newsons, but generally people just think of the outdoors when they think of Australia.”
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As a reaction to the more glamorous and often over-stylised shoots, which he’s often commissioned to do, Barbera is sure to have each studio for his personal blog appear in its natural and everyday state – whether sparse and minimal or cluttered disorder. In a series of beautifully articulated shots, Barbera shares with the public every type of studio out there – from the chaotic creativity of graphic design duo Tin&Ed, recipients of the Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards, to the understated black and white avant-garde stylings of fashion designers, Alpha60.
As a photographer and creative surveyor himself, he also likes to use the blog to publicise the good work of others. “There’s a lot going on in our own backyard, and that’s what I want to present to the world,” explains Barbera. ”I’m proud to be Australian – to be from Melbourne. There’s a lot going on here and as a photographer, I can accentuate this.”
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Along this vein, Barbera recently shot Republic of Everyone to highlight the Sydney studio’s work in sustainability strategy. “I like them because they are trying to change the world, a little bit at a time.” Documenting non-commercial projects is nothing new to Barbera, who from 2003 to 2006 worked in poor areas of India and Peru, documenting the humanitarian efforts of Dutch NGO Solidaridad.
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Those who follow Barbera’s work may have also encountered his other, less public, blog – Love Lost. It’s a photographic series that depicts women in soft, romantic and intimate poses. He is reluctant to talk about it, explaining that unlike Where They Create, Love Lost is a project of a very personal nature.
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Like many bloggers out there, Barbera’s success has been helped by social media trends. And he fully acknowledges this. “I feel blogs get me as excited as magazines these days,” he says. “I find so much great work online… the digital arena has democratised photography and anyone can do it now. If the work is being seen and inspires others, then it’s a success!”
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If site statistics are anything to go by, then Where They Create’s 15,000 unique hits a month seem to echo this sentiment. Later this year, Barbera will head to New York to conquer new creative terrain. In the meantime, he’ll continue to divide his time between editorial and commercial work, along with his other personal projects. Although not entirely content to rest on his proverbial laurels quite yet, Barbera is appreciative that his projects have gained such attention. “I am happy with my projects, but I do have another 25 odd ideas I would love to start…” Just going by the first three here, it’s safe to say any of those 25 odd ideas would be interesting to look at.
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