GORDON BECK PHOTOGRAPHY
by Claudia Smith, OBP Secretary
Part 1
“When people say, ‘There used to be a barn here,’ it is too late.” The acclaimed photojournalist, Gordon Beck, took this to heart and his passion for the pre-1900 barns of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville in Ontario became all-consuming.
His drives along the county roads searching for barns brought him much pleasure as he talked with barn owners about their buildings and pointed the lens of his Pentax and later the camera on his phone at historic barns in all states of repair or dilapidation.
Approaching each barn as a portrait sitting, he used his camera “as a painter uses the brush to colour the scene with sun, rain, snow or mist as the mood indicates.” He preferred cloudy, rainy or blizzard conditions to enhance the atmosphere in his barn portraits.
Please respect the fact that these photos are copyrighted and permission must be requested before any images are downloaded or used in any way. Copyright Ewa Bujinicka.
To be continued next week …
Claudia Smith met with Gordon Beck several times and they shared ideas about the significance of old barns, their awe at the strength of the old structures and the importance of photography in preserving their presence on the landscape, even as time and neglect defeated them and the barns themselves cannot be saved.
To all OBP blog readers: If you have not already done so, please support not-for-profit, volunteer-run, Ontario Barn Preservation by becoming a member! Also, if you are in the business of repairing, reconstructing, engineering, designing, etc. old barns, please consider advertising your amazing skills on our Barn Specia-List. If you own an old barn that you would like to offer to someone else, or you are hoping to obtain one for your own project, make use of our Barn Exchange page. If you own an old barn and would like to save it in the virtual world for future old barn lovers, historians and researchers, check out our Your Old Barn Study page. And please send us your own barn story, photos and/or art for submission as a OBP blog posting for the enjoyment and education of all barn lovers! info@ontariobarnpreservation.com