About John M. Barbiaux…
For over two decades, John Barbiaux has developed an extensive body of work dipping into the worlds of street, landscape, and travel photography. A self-taught photographer, Barbiaux has explored his medium through analog, digital, and composite images, capturing a breadth of subjects from sweeping cityscapes and natural vistas to the streets of small American towns. The progression of his portfolio and his life has come with an affinity for framing quiet yet poignant moments amongst everyday backdrops.
Raised on a farm north of Pittsburgh, PA, Barbiaux has always been drawn to the act of making a photograph. His early work seeks to expand his small-town view, finding inspiration in travels to the West Coast and beyond. Sun-drenched and wistful shots of iconic sites like Venice Beach, Death Valley, and Santa Monica culminate in Barbiaux’s formative California Dreaming series.
Barbiaux continues to discover overlooked windows of beauty across the U.S. in major cities and national parks as well as his own backyard. His images tap into the pulse of each environment, enhancing, as in a painting, the nuances and geometry of forms in plain sight. Barbiaux’s recent and ongoing series, Life on Mars, began during the pandemic lockdowns of 2020 and returns to the artist’s roots on the outer fringes of Pittsburgh. Far from urban crowds, Barbiaux began to see his current town, Mars, PA, in a new light as both an inhabitant and outsider. Barbiaux traverses often empty neighborhoods, embracing his instinct in clicking the shutter. Absent of figures, the inanimate subjects of these photos—houses, cars, fences, lamp posts—take on otherworldly presences. What’s conjured are spaces at once familiar and strange, embedded with unseen narratives. As Barbiaux probes the mundane, he shows that familiarity is often a façade: a deeper look and one arrives in foreign territory.
Barbiaux’s photographs have been published in the likes of National Geographic Traveler magazine among other publications. He has written countless educational articles for online photography platforms such as DecisiveShot, Digital Photography School, and PetaPixel, and maintains a well-trafficked Instagram account at photolisticlife where he frequently shares his latest work. Barbiaux has been commissioned for several large-scale installations of works from his Fractal Cityscapes series, some of which reach four stories in height. His first solo exhibition, Environs, was shown at The John Hermann Art Museum in May 2022. The artist currently lives and works outside of Pittsburgh.
Barbiaux is self-represented and take clients on a limited basis. Please inquire about availability:
Location: Pittsburgh (but travel frequently)
Email: PhotolisticLife@gmail.com
Phone: 724.602.8702
Instagram: @PhotolisticLife