Photography Council’s Lunchtime Talk: Kristina Barker

Free to the public. People are welcome to bring their lunch.

Kristina Barker:  how old am i? how old are you?

My mom was diagnosed at 54 years old with early-onset Alzheimer’s. I was only 29. For the past 13 years, I have been photographing this experience in an effort to make sense of this consuming loss. At times, my camera helps me feel more present with what is happening. Other times, it’s a tool for me to disassociate. My camera became an emotional buoy to survive with. The grief I feel is tremendous and often overwhelming. 

This collection is not only about losing someone in slow motion, but also what do the feelings of grief look like? How do I honor my memories of her? What does loss look like? I see so much of how we care for my mom as a reflection of her caring for us as babies and small kids. It feels like a circle of patterns and memories. And I see so much of this experience reflected in the natural world. The collection includes images I’ve made of my mom, family snapshots, my journal entries, and photos my mom took with her cellphone.

Kristina Barker

Guided by her introspective sense of place and belonging, Kristina examines themes around human consciousness reflected in nature. She investigates the idea of where our physical and non-physical worlds intertwine, observing the bewildering experience of existing as a human. Her practice is heavily influenced by grief, memory, and connecting the state of dreaming as a critical part of human life.

Growing up in the sprawling San Francisco Bay Area, Kristina followed her love for rural communities, living and working in the Black Hills of South Dakota for over a decade. She now lives in Portland, Ore. with her cat Dills. 

Kristina has documented news and communities for The New York Times, The Atlantic, High Country News, The Los Angeles Times, Harpers, Audubon Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Mother Jones. 

Her work has received support from the International Women’s Media Foundation and the Portland (Ore.) Regional Arts & Culture Council. She has completed residencies at Jentel Arts (Wyo.), Arte Ventura (Spain), and Green Box Arts (Colo.). Early in her career, she broke a 130-year run of men monopolizing the newsroom, becoming the first female staff photographer and later the first female photo editor at The Rapid City (S.D.) Journal. During that time, she was nominated twice for South Dakota’s Young Journalist of the Year. In 2023, she was recognized for her work documenting the challenges of unpaid maternity leave with a Public Interest Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors.

The Lunchtime Talk series is a presentation of the Portland Art Museum’s
Photography Council.