Photography based series artist, Barbara Probst, was born in Munich, Germany in 1964. From 1984-1990 she attended the Akademie der Bilende Kunste in Munich and from 1988-1989 Probst attended the Kunstakademie in Dusseldorf, Germany. Barbara Probst is known for striking photographic series work where the viewer has the opportunity to view the scene from multiple different camera angles. Her more popular current series “Exposure” is described as one that “breaks the photographic moment into several points of view through the use of multiple cameras in a single shot.” Probst currently has public collections in many museums and galleries around the world. Her collections are in places like the Museum of Modern Art in New York, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, Colorado, Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, Illinois, and FRAC Bretagne in Charteaugiran, France.
As new to the contemporary art world as Probst is, she has established a strong name for herself and acquired a good number of awards and grants. In 1990 she received the Sanha Kaimer Fellowship: New York Residency, 1992 the Fellowship of Kunstfonds; Bonn, Germany from the DADD Travel Grant, Rome. Also, in 1994 she won the Photography Award from the Munich Arts Council as well as an award from the Cultural Board of the German Industry, Bund Deutscher Industrie in 1995. Others include, a Fellowship award from Bavaria in 1997 and a Fellowship of Kunstfonds Bonn, Germany in 2002 presented by Philip Morris in Dresden. Probst’s first solo show was at the Murray Guy Gallery in 2004 where she is still represented today.
Critic Reinhard Bryan was quoted when talking about Probst’s current series “Exposure.” “Facticity is enacted in the multipart, large-format tableaux as a construct of photography itself. The exposures show that omissions and contradictions, that replacements and appropriations in particular, are part of photographic practice itself, and that they indicate how a picture not only shows something but also causes something else, an other picture to disappear.” From the Murray Guy website, Probst’s work is described as one of “photogenic truth that is subject to fragmentation and cinematic drama, offering new interpretations of the classical fleeting photographic moment.” Exposure #59, shot in her Munich Studio and around Germany, is one in which the viewer’s eye is brought through the image by the movement that red scarf takes on. The first image of this four image series is the one that introduces a strong splash red color to the very monochromatic following images. Exposure #49, shot in her NYC studio, is a series comprised of 12 images. This series is also a mix of black and white and color images of her shielding the lens of the camera so it cannot capture everything in front of it. There are a few hints of green and yellow in the color images but mostly the palette is simple and colorless. When describing her work, Probst talked about the absurd number of cameras that have been used to complete a shoot; up to 12 cameras. In an interview with her she was asked if she felt her approach is a more complete or reliable representation than a single image from one camera. Probst answered by saying, “I think my work provides us with the implication that there is no reliable representation of “what happened.” Photography is like language: It provides us with an interpretation depending on the intentions and abilities of the person that told the story or made the photograph.”
Murray Guy Gallery: Barbara Probst page
Jessica Bradley Art+Projects
Museum of Contemporary Photography article
The Morning News interview with Probst
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