Interview with Brendan Barry

Brendan Barry is a photographer, educator and camera builder whose creative photographic practice combines elements of construction, education, performance and participation. He turned almost anything from a skyscraper to a pineapple into a camera.

How was your love for photography born? At what age did you build your first camera? I’ve been interested in photography since about as early as I can remember, it always seemed to make sense to me. The combination of the technical and expressive nature and possibilities of the medium attracted me from a young age and has never gone away. I, like most people who study photography in some form, had made pinhole cameras but I didn’t build my first ‘proper’ camera (i.e. with a lens) until 3 or 4 years ago. When I was young I used to take apart all my toys and rebuild them into Frankenstein esq creations. I also loved building treehouses and dens so making my own camera just seemed like the obvious thing to do.

Could you tell us about your "shipping container camera" project? How the "largest, slowest and least practical Polaroid in the world" was born and how it works? How is equipped the darkroom inside? Is it an evolution of the Caravan Camera? The shipping container is indeed an evolution of the caravan camera. I wanted too create something that was bigger and therefore could fit more people in and also a camera that was wheelchair accessible. The project was funded by the Arts Council England, for which I placed it in a public garden in Exeter where I live and over a three week period engaged and collaborated with a broad range of audiences from a variety of backgrounds. Groups with special learning needs, hearing impairment, challenging behavioural issues and/or mental ill health, students, academics and enthusiasts, as well as other creative practitioners and members of the public. The camera is solar powered, has a moveable front wall to allow access and I also constructed a rudimentary print washing system inside so I could wash, hang and dry the images quicker.

How do you move the container to the place where you planned to take a photo? You need a lorry with a crane to pick it up and move it so it’s a bit of a task to get it to new places!

How do you find the Harman Direct Positive paper in the large format you use for your work? I guess it's hard to find it in a regular photo shop. Do you buy it directly from Ilford? Yes I buy it from Ilford. It comes in all sorts of sizes and giant rolls too which I have been working with a lot recently.

Only considering the cost of chemicals and paper, how much could a 36x44 "print cost in 2020? Oh god, I don’t know! You’d have to find out what a roll of paper in that size costs and then work and it out from there. And it depend of course on what paper you’re using and how much you pay for it. The chemicals aren’t too expensive, and you’re only using small amounts each time you fill up your trays / troughs.

When did you start to think that even a pineapple, a pumpkin or a loaf of bread could turn into a camera, and why? It all started with a bin years ago. I was making pinhole cameras with my students at college out of shoe boxes and I saw the bin in the darkroom. It had a lid just like the shoe box so I realised I could use that in the same way. After that I just started to look at things and think ‘you could make a camera out of that’, so I would. There’s not much of an explanation to this I’m afraid, and if I try to force it, i.e. if I try to think of something to make a camera out of, it never can, they always come naturally.