January 2024 Unicorn Of The Month Barbara Nitke

Barbara is another one of the many amazingly talented and generous artists I have met through Netvrrk. Much like the artist I featured last month, Barbara's work has multiple points of entry. My first impression is the obvious craftsmanship of her photography. Thanks to google analytics, I know that most of you reading this are are 30 years of age and younger. You are mostly unaware that there was a time when there was ONLY film photography. If you wanted a crisp, well lite, compelling photograph, you HAD to know your equipment backwards and forwards. Even then, there were still a number of factors that could go wrong from the time you took the shot to when the film was developed. Not the there isn't a sense of craftsmanship and skill with digital cameras, there certainly is, but I am in awe of people who are masters of film photography. 

The second aspect of her work that grabbed and kept my attention were the questions it raised for me. Much like the work of Robert Mapplethorpe, whom Barbara mentions, I NEED to know more. Who was/is this person? Where are they now? Are they happy with how their life turned out? Have they ever been in love? What did they dream of when they were six years old? What were they thinking the moment the shutter snapped? None of these questions I can know, but that's the point. In my opinion, art that is truly impactful, never truly gives us all the answers, but rather it acts as a guide along a certain path. We get a glimpse here and there, but the rest of the equation is for us to figure out on our own. As Barbara eludes to below "...we’re really all floating on the same life raft, trying to find our way." 

1. Tell me about you as a person. The name in which you prefer to go by. Where are you based? What are your origins, where are you from, etc.? 

I’ve always used my real name, Barbara Nitke. Actually Nitke is my first husband’s name. We were divorced 40 years ago, but I liked the name so I kept it. I think he was secretly flattered. I’m based in Harlem, New York. I was born in Lynchburg VA, raised mostly in Alaska, and moved to New York when I was 18. I didn’t know a single person here, but the minute I walked out of Grand Central Station with my two JC Penny suitcases, I knew I was home.

2. How long have you been practicing art professionally, when did you consider yourself a real artist?

Initially I thought I wanted to be a writer, but I couldn’t stand being alone in a room in front of a piece of blank paper. I was in my late 20’s when I picked up a camera and started taking pictures. At first I just shot everything, but a couple of years into it, on the set of a porn movie called Nasty Girls in 1982, I found my subject. That was when I got serious. I wanted to be the best photographer I could to do that world justice, and I devoted myself to learning everything about my craft.

I was 35 before I got up the courage to define myself as an artist.

3. Did you go to art school? Tell me about your training, formal and informal.

I did not go to art school, but ironically I’ve been on the faculty of School of Visual Arts for over 30 years. I love teaching my craft, and love my association with the school. I take classes there in everything all the time. I’ve never stopped learning, but I’ve never felt the need to have a degree.

4. What is the medium(s) that you prefer to work in and tell why?

I’m happiest when I’m around a bunch of interesting people with a camera in my hand. It’s the way I connect most deeply with people. Photographing someone is so intimate. Even the simplest, quick snapshot is an intimate experience for me. I see directly into that person’s soul for a moment, and the power to stop that moment is intoxicating.

5. Who are some of your art inspirations? What are some of your non-art inspirations?

My early touchstones were the great documentary photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Diane Arbus, Mary Ellen Mark, Bruce Davidson, Eugene Richards, James Nachtwey. I poured over their images, and hoped I could bring their inspiration to my earliest work about the porn world, the American Ecstasy series. Then as my work developed I added studio photographers like Cindy Sherman, Helmut Newton, and especially Robert Mapplethorpe. He shot beautiful naked men and sadomasochists and was taken seriously by the art world. I was in awe of his success.

More recently, I’ve began to find inspiration in the cinema. The feelings I had when I watched Stephen Frears’ movie The Grifters haunted me for years. Those emotions became the genesis for my Luxe Motel series of constructed narratives about people at the end of their line.

And for the last three years, as I’ve been working on developing a tv series about a young woman who becomes a porn star at the end of Golden Age of Porn. A lot of my inspiration for that project has been Ang Lee’s Lust Caution. It’s a little known, but breathtaking film about a doomed love affair, where a large part of the story is told through the subtext of beautifully shot sex scenes.

6. When do you know when a work is finished?

Nothing is ever finished. It drives me crazy! I have a sold photograph sitting here in my office, framed and ready to deliver, that I think I might have printed too dark. I’m sure I’ll be back in the lab in a week or so reprinting it. I can’t figure out if this makes me a good artist, or just a crazy perfectionist.

7. Tell me about your process when working. Do you listen to music or do any rituals to get yourself ready to make art?

When I started out, my process centered around gaining access to the worlds I wanted to explore, and then staying very focused when I was there so I could react to situations instinctively. But over the years, my process shifted as I began to design and create the moments I was shooting.

For my most recent work, the Luxe Motel series, I do a lot of planning in advance. I write a short script and send it to the model so we can go back and forth over it ahead of time. Then I light the set the day before, and sometimes relight it the next morning.

But eventually I’m there, in the moment, with a camera and a model, and all thought goes away. Once we start shooting, I just go with the scene as it unfolds, often changing the script as we go. I’m in the zone, and it’s the most wonderful feeling.

The next day, I begin to look over the images and start selecting and color correcting and all that. The over thinking and insecurity comes back and I start picking apart the shoot to find the best image - the one that tells the story we set out to tell. But all I can see is the moments I missed, the light that should have been moved over a foot, the gesture that should have been bigger, or smaller. Sometimes it takes weeks before I actually like the shoot, and sometimes I never do. That perfectionism can be frustrating, but overall I have to admit that I love the whole process.

8. What are the meanings and the concepts behind this particular body of work?

My early work was focused on humanizing people in the sex world, from hardcore porn stars to sadomasochists. I wanted to break the taboo around them, and show them as ordinary people, despite their exotic lives.

About fifteen years ago, I began broadening my scope to include other dark areas of life - gamblers, murders, people on the lam, running away from their lives, or themselves - trying to excise their demons. Like we all are on some level.

9.What do you want viewers would take away from your work?

Empathy, compassion, understanding, oneness. I want to tell stories that connect people with each other. We’re all human, we’re all trying to escape something. I think the worst problem we face today is the polarization between people. Everyone thinks they’re better than “the others.” But we’re really all floating on the same life raft, trying to find our way.

10.What are your biggest goals as a visual artist? And what has been your proudest moment professionally?

The biggest gift to me is when someone trusts me with their deepest secrets and lets me into their life. I can’t find the words for how honored I feel in those moments.

  To view more of Barbara's work, visit her Website and follow her on Instagram. You will be glad you did.