Barbara Yoshida

Barbara Yoshida is an adventurous traveler and photographer who fills her backpack with tent, sleeping bag, large format camera, film and tripod, then sets out to capture natural forms and spiritual locations on film in countries from Sweden throughout Europe to the Ukraine, Armenia, Israel, Morocco, West Africa, Japan, and Mongolia. Camping with her family in the woods of northern Idaho was an early influence and her interest in the natural world has remained. She started using a camera for her artistic expression after more than twenty years as a painter and six years making sculpture. While pursuing her photographic work, she also spent several years doing printmaking, using photo processes. Photographing the US through a half-dozen artist’s residencies for the National Park Service honed her skills in various weather conditions and resulted in a series of color landscapes as well as a series of photogravure prints. It was during this time that she began to focus on stones. Following ten years of photographing Neolithic standing stones in moonlight, her first monograph, Moon Viewing: Megaliths by Moonlight, was published by Marquand Books in September 2014.

Yoshida’s other long-term project is a portrait series of women artists. Since 1990 she has documented more than a hundred women in their studios and homes. Feeling the need to create a sense of community, her project is inclusive—the artists span several generations and work in a variety of styles; they come from various countries; and there are no distinctions between fine art and craft.

Yoshida’s interest in the body and feminist iconography produced an early series including naked self-portraits with masks. Some of these self-portraits were also shot in moonlight, because the Moon has traditionally exemplified the feminine, particularly female intuition and emotions.

In 2015, Yoshida will have two major exhibitions in New York City: 100 women artists’ portraits will be shown in March at Long Island University in Brooklyn and her moonlight images of standing stones will be exhibited in April at Umbrella Arts in Manhattan. Previously, her one-person exhibition at the National Museum of Poland featured 80 women artists’ portraits, and during that same year she was selected by Joyce Tenneson for “The View Project” at Naples Museum of Art in Florida. Her photogravures were shown at Atelier Lacourière Frélaut in Paris and seven large moonlight prints were featured at Southeast Museum of Photography in Florida. In addition to her recent monograph, her night photography can be seen in Night and Low-Light Photography: Professional Techniques from Experts for Artistic and Commercial Success.

She is represented in various collections including Museet for Fotokunst, Denmark; Southeast Museum of Photography; Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum; The Huntington Gardens Art Collection; Polaroid Corporation; and Light Work.

Yoshida is an American artist, living and working in New York City. She received her M.A. at Hunter College, and her B.A. at University of Washington. She is a former Light Work, Ucross, Blacklock Nature Sanctuary, Atlantic Center for the Arts (selected by Graciela Iturbide), and two-time MacDowell Colony fellow.