Richard Barnes

Richard Barnes is a New York based, American photographer who is known for his architectural based photography. He looks at architecture as artifact and, places it within the context of archaeology, as a way to challenge our conceptions of the way we inhabit and represent the built environment. He has photographed for such publications as National Geographic, the New York Times and the New Yorker in mainly architecture and/or archaeology centered shoots.


Barnes' monograph, Animal Logic, combines science, history, archaeology, and architecture, four of his most common themes in his work. This body of work, based on the role of the museum in contemporary culture, highlights sights normally hidden from public view in the setting of different museums thoughout the US. 

Giraffe, 2005
20 x 24 inches
Chromogenic print

Single Ungulate and Man with Blue Crosses, San Francisco, 2008
20 x 24 inches
Chromogenic print

"Animal Logic investigates both the human desire to construct artificial worlds for 'the wild' and the haunting and poignant worlds the real wild constructs."

In the series Murmur, Barnes' photographs the duality of man's relationship with birds, showing both a delicate flock and the gathering of a mass in contrast with a manmade backdrop. The images in the series were taken throughout Barnes' two year residency in a suburb or Rome.

Murmur #1, 2005
40 x 40 inches
Pigment print

Murmur #5, 200640 x 40 inchesPigment print