PCA Photo Lunch Talks: Rufus Barkley
PCA Photo Talks welcomes Rufus Barkley on November 2nd, 2021
Barkley is a photographer, film maker and writer. He was raised between Southern California, South Carolina, Peru, and Paris. The contrasts inherent in his much traveled life are evident in his work, which contains a provocative energy and a precocious frame of reference. He found his appreciation for art at an early age, developing a particular admiration for painters like Juan Gris and René Magritte. A chance exposure to the street artist Invader and the discovery of musicians like, The Stooges and The Cramps were among the catalysts that made him realize he didn’t need to paint or draw classically to be an artist. Rufus turned to graffiti techniques using paint pens and increasingly large canvases. He then picked up a camera and was immediately enthralled by the spontaneity and freedom photography can offer.
He became obsessed with the camera, initially documenting the skate punk milieu he was a part of; the mosh pits and live performances. On moving to New York in 2014, he was captivated by the idea of making fashion photography. Expanding his range into moving image, Rufus has found his metier, which lies in combining his obsessions into free-form diaries that capture the looseness of rock and roll, the flamboyance of fashion, and in his prose the reflective inner life of one who has always been on the move. His work reveals his love of it all, as well as ambivalence and wit. His styling is elegant and irreverent. He is an outsider with an insider’s knowledge, in love with the way the world looks though the prisms of his prose, films and photographs.