Barbara Boissevain

From River to Ocean:
Artists Respond to Environmental Impacts

Barbara Boissevain

Bio:

Website

Salt of the Earth Book

Instagram

Barbara Boissevain is a California based contemporary visual artist and photographer whose work focuses on the impact of human activity on the environment. Nature’s ability to regenerate and reclaim human altered landscapes is a central theme in her work.

Boissevain was born in Cleveland, Ohio and raised in Silicon Valley. She studied painting at Parsons School of Design in New York before immersing herself in photography, earning a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from San Jose State University.

Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe, including Mémoire De L'Avenir, Paris; the Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA; Galerie Numero Cinq, Arles, France; and the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland. From 2014 to 2021, she was an artist in residence with the City of Palo Alto’s Cubberley Artist Studio Program. In 2018 she was an artist in residence at Galerie Huit in Arles, France. She was invited to Atelier 11 for a solo residency through L’AiR Arts international residency program in Paris in July 2022. In the Summer of 2023 she was honored to participate in the Cycladic Arts Residency in Paros Greece.

In 2009 Boissevain published her first book, titled Children of the Rainbow, which documented the humanitarian challenges facing Quechua communities in Peru due to climate change. In 2021 her work was featured on NPR’s “The Picture Show” in conjunction with the UN Climate Change Summit in Glasgow, Scotland. She was also featured on the PBS News show Something Beautiful in 2022.

Her book “Salt of the Earth” was published by Kehrer Verlag in the Fall of 2023, and was chosen as one of Wired Magazine’s best photo books of 2023.

Boissevain’s photographs are in numerous public and private collections, including the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington D.C.; Google Corporate Art Collection, Sunnyvale, CA; and the De Pietri Artphilein Foundation, Lugano, Switzerland.

Artist Statement:

In my photographic series “Salt of the Earth”, I use a vivid and abstract visual language to examine the impact of human activity on the environment. Vibrant colors and geometric forms are combined with shifting viewpoints to enhance the surreal nature of these transforming landscapes.

Salt Ponds have been a longstanding feature of the San Francisco Bay since the 1800s. Over the past twelve years, my artistic inquiry into this complex and evolving subject has intensified. By shifting my perspective and employing aerial, ground-level, and underwater macro photography, I capture the multifaceted reality of these landscapes. These images not only document the ongoing efforts to restore wetlands but also reflect the broader quest to rejuvenate the Bay's natural biodiversity.

After several years of taking these aerial photographs, I had thousands of images and I began creating formal grids based on the year they were photographed and a common color palette. I use the grid to emphasize the surreal nature of these sites already altered and deformed by human activity.

My ultimate goal in the creation of this work is to raise awareness about the miraculous power of nature to regenerate and renew, as well as the crucial need to preserve our natural spaces.