Publications

The Phoblographer

“Haha… I’ve heard that before,” says photographer John Barbiaux to us when we asked him about his series, Life on Mars. “Personally, I think the towns are so beautiful and peaceful. The glow of the windows is a sort of connection with others in a seemingly disconnected world, a warmth of sorts.” Mars isn’t the planet, but instead, it’s a town. Despite this, his photos remind us a bit of both Todd Hido’s work and that of the great Stephen King — yet they meet at a totally different place in John’s work.“

Aesthetica Magazine/Website

“Self-taught photographer John Barbiaux is a master of the everyday, capturing everything from sweeping cityscapes and natural vistas to the quiet streets of small American towns. “Life on Mars began in 2020 and returns to my roots on the outer fringes of Pittsburgh. Far from urban crowds, I began to see my town, Mars, in a new light. I was both an inhabitant and outsider. I traversed empty neighborhoods, embracing instinct in clicking the shutter. Absent of figures, the inanimate subjects of these photos – houses, cars, fences, lamp posts – take on an otherworldly presence. What’s conjured is a space at once familiar and strange, embedded with unseen narratives. The more I probe the mundane, the more I find that familiarity is often a façade: a deeper look and one arrives in foreign territory.” The pictures are nostalgic, evoking stalwarts of 1970s American colour photography like Joel Meyerowitz and Stephen Shore. Lights shine out from behind closed windows, casting an orange-yellow glow onto freshly-cut lawns and wooden porches. “Initially, I shot the images with film and developed them in our kitchen sink. I wanted to continue creating the same vintage look, so I purchased a modern lens that uses a nearly identical design from the 1950s.””

Silver Eye Interview/Online Exhibition

“John Barbiaux is a self-taught photographer from the greater Pittsburgh area who works across a breadth of genres ranging from landscape and street photography to composite images. His work evokes strong emotions and transports viewers into whatever world he finds himself photographing in, whether that be calm rolling landscapes at sunset or bustling energetic cities. Silver Eye Scholar Will Litchholt writes:…”