Collection consists of 421 black-and-white prints, darkroom and digital, 726 associated digital image and project files, and two digital videos by photographer Petra Barth. Arranged by project, the photographs document the cultures, politics, environments, and crises in countries all over the world, and her interest in portraiture. Series include The Americas, whose images range from Central and South American countries to Caribbean countries of Haiti and the Bahamas; migrants and migrant services at the Arizona/Mexico border; the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and residents in nearby areas in the Ukraine; scenes in Jerusalem and the West Bank; refugees in Jordan camps; and portraits of military veterans of the Bosnia-Herzegovina War, in the city of Sarajevo. In addition to many portraits of individuals and families, there are also landscapes.
Areas represented in The Americas series include Bolivia; Patagonia, Argentina; the Bahamas; Foz do Iguaçu and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; El Salvador; Guatemala; Martissant, Cité Soleil, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Nicaragua; Ciudad del Este, Paraguay; and Cusco, Peru. Includes images of people working, cooking, minding children, participating in local festivals, traveling, and playing. Several portraits feature people in traditional dress. The largest group of images was taken in Haiti, where Barth returned following the 2010 earthquake. These photographs include scenes of people among the rubble in Martissant and Port-au-Prince, as well as some portraits of hospital patients. The Americas series images are arranged alphabetically by country.
The two short digital videos were taken by Barth in South America and the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
Acquired as part of the Human Rights Archive at Duke University.
Born in Bavaria, Germany in 1964, Petra Barth initially studied design in Milan and worked for many years in the fashion industry. In 1999, fulfilling a lifelong ambition, she became a full-time freelance photographer and has travelled extensively, including projects represented in this collection in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Caribbean, Central and South America, the Middle East, the Ukraine, and the border between Mexico and the Southwestern U.S. She has won many awards, especially for the Prix de la Photography de Paris, and has exhibited her work in galleries and institutions all over the world.
Processed by Meghan Lyon, November 2010, and Levi Crews and Paula Jeannet, September 2014.
Encoded by Meghan Lyon, November 2010, Craig Breaden, June 2012, and Paula Jeannet, September 2014.
Processed by Yuqiao Cao and processed and encoded by Paula Jeannet, January 2018.
Accession 2018-0076 processed and encoded by Paula Jeannet, August 2018.
All digital content with the exception of the videos ingested, processed, and encoded by M. Farrell and Paula Jeannet, November 2018.
Web content described by Michelle Runyon, April 2020.
Accession(s) represented in this collection guide: 2008-0235, 2010-0209, 2012-0126, 2014-0101, 2017-0213, and 2018-0076.
