Painted Ladies



The artfully staged images of Canadian photographer Barbara Cole are pictorially arranged moments of desire. Her portraits of girls and young women hover between reality and dream. The beautiful protagonists basking in timeless interiors carry simultaneous airs of innocence and charm. Once a model herself, Cole assumed her new role as photographer with ease. Poised behind the camera, she continues what she often experienced in her own biography: the celebration of beauty at its utmost perfection.



Today Cole is an enthusiastic virtuosa of the Polaroid camera, which has been rediscovered in artistic photography. She above all cherishes the possibilities for “softly drawn” contours and silhouettes as well as the medium’s special lighting and colors. Since the early years of her photographic career she has taken advantage of Polaroid film’s chemical process to leave her own gentle marks on the processing photo. The photo paper’s own emulsions allow her to carefully work the piece by hand to “mix the colors and texture” as if brushing paints on a palette, which lends her works their unmistakably warm aura. Her works’ color palette has been inspired and influenced by British painter Lucian Freud, whose work she deeply appreciates.


The rooms’ theatrical ambiance, which awakens an association to ballrooms, emphasizes the lightness and freedom of the women portrayed. Scintillating, authentic moments arise, which Cole artfully translates into images.



In doing so, Cole achieves almost timeless images that require no localization; rather they seem to become iconic of our very personal emotional worlds.



In keeping with these techniques and genres, Cole creates an artistic homage to youthful femininity that takes us one step closer to unraveling that eternal mystery of our own identities. This revelation has been honored with international renown and innumerable exhibitions.