The Big Picture Vol. VII
Barbara Jo Revelle - Tampa's Seventh Photographer Laureate
(The following images are samples of the photographer's past works - they are not part of the Big Picture Volume 7)
 

Artist’s Statement:
What I often see when I am out there photographing in public communal places - what I want to make photographs and an accompanying sound collage about in the city of Tampa – is evidence of people’s resilience, resourcefulness, and their insistence on acting like they are free, even if their futures are uncertain.An obsessive walker, my proposal is to walk all over Tampa, during many days and nights in 2009, and photograph wherever people go out in public, congregate, interact. Concurrent with making these documentary street portraits - mostly group - I will audiotape the voices of the people I photograph. The interviews will start by my asking one deceptively simple (but potentially ‘burning’) question: How is it going with you these days? Then I will listen; respond in a way that invites disclosures and specific details; record; and ultimately weave together a sound track from fragments of collected speech. My approach is the vérité, 'street-shooting' style of photography, which encompasses more than images made literally in the street, and implies pictures of people in candid situations in all kinds of public places. Tampa is a perfect matrix for a project like this one because of its history, heritage, and rich mixture of cultures, multi-ethnic makeup, and its intense night life and many wonderful festivals and public events.

Barbara Jo Revelle is a photographer, film/video maker, installation and public artist. She is a Professor and the Director of the Photography Area at the University of Florida, Gainesville, where she served as Director of the School of Art and Art History from 1996-2000. She was Director of the Photography and Electronic Media Program at the University of Colorado, Boulder, for 13 years prior to moving to Florida.

Learn more about the artist at http://barbarajorevelle.com/