In 1969 on a winter's afternoon I was wandering the streets of Philadelphia looking for photos. I had my trusty Leica double stroke M3 loaded for bear, but I was unsatisfied with my photos and believe I was losing interest. The day got darker and started to snow. A blizzard! I ducked into the Philadelphia Museum of Art seeking shelter. There was a photo exhibition. I came across Moonrise, Hernandez New Mexico by Ansel Adams. I was transfixed. I couldn't move. Looking at this photograph I could feel the desert winds. I could smell beans cooking. I could hear children playing and dogs barking. I didn't realize a photograph could do this. My life changed at that moment. A year and a half later i was in California studying photography. I never again did anything but make photographs.

I spent 30 years using ,almost exclusively, the 8x 10 camera. It was hard work. Especially the darkroom part. I never had that " Moment of Zen" that so many people speak about when talking about the darkroom . it was work. I might as well have taken my lunch pail in with me. I had to make photographs and this was the  way to do it.

When digital came along I was scared. A new world that I did not know. I started slowly, very slowly. Eventually I came to realize that for me this world offered the things I had always been seeking. The ability to create my own personal universe. I have not been back in the darkroom in 12 years.

Currently I work with a variety of cameras. Usually the camera of choice is the I phone 11. Big difference from the 8x10. Working this way is liberating. Freedom, no rules. I create my current work by using Photoshop along with thousands of textures, words etc. I have no preconceived notion of what I will produce. I just produce it. It has always been a labor of love. It still is.

Jack Barnosky Philadelphia    June 2020