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that made him famous. His photographs illustrate folk
musicians, noble ladies of the Caucasus in national
costumes, coal-sellers and numerous other types of
people.
Barkanov also made trips to various regions of the
Caucasus with his mobile studio often photographing
individuals that interested him. His contemporaries
praised his work for the scientifi c techniques, and
today, the high artistic quality of his work is also
discussed.
Barkanov’s works were awarded medals at the Poly-
technic exhibition in Moscow in 1872, the World exhibi-
tion in Vienna in 1873 and in Paris in 1874. Barkanov
was also awarded the title of “Court Photographer of
His Highness, Prince Mikchail Nikolajevich.” In 1877
and 1878, Barkanov worked as photographer in the army
during the Russian-Turkish war. In the 1880s he sold
his photo-studio, and in 1881 he received a diploma at
an exhibition in Toulouse.
Throughout his career, Barkanov made huge contri-
butions to the development of ethnographic photography
in Russia.
Alexei Loginov
BARKER, ALFRED CHARLES
(1819–1873)
English photographer
Dr. Alfred Charles Barker (1819–1873) arrived in New
Zealand in 1850 as part of a successful venture which
saw the establish of a new English immigration scheme
establish in the South Island. His role as a doctor
in Christchurch was cut short by a fall from a horse.
He then turned his attention to land purchases and other
investments which helped to found his family1s fortunes.
In 1858 he took lessons in photography from the archi-
tect Benjamin Mountfort and became profi cient in the
collodion process. For subject matter, he photographed
his family in their environment on the Canterbury Plains,
producing prints from his negatives which he distributed
to friends and relations both at at home and abroad.
Today these are treasured because of their signifi cance
in documenting the life and times an Englishman in a
new land. Most of these historically important social
statements were made in his Œgarden studio. As well he
also distinguished himself with forays into stereoscopy
and recording important civic events. In comparison to
other colonial amateurs, Barker seemed to care little for
formalities when it came to obeying the rules of pictorial
composition and formal portraiture. Despite his apparent
disregard for photographic protocol, his work displays
a directness and vitality all of its own.
William Main
BARKER, GEORGE (1844–1894)
The Canadian photographer George Barker was born
in London, Ontario, in 1844, opening a photographic
studio in that city at the age of eighteen. He is believed
to have been trained in photography in the late 1850s
by James Egan.
By 1863 Barker had moved to Niagara Falls, New
York, where he worked for Platt D. Babbitt, who had
operated a studio there since 1853.
Barker later established studios in both Niagara and
London, Ontario, and by the late 1860s his catalogue
of views—both large format and stereographs—was
extensive. A fi re destroyed his premises on 7th February
1870, but as the Philadelphia Photographer reported, his
unique catalogue of stereoscopic negatives was rescued.
By the late 1880s, his stereo views of the Falls were
mounted on cards bearing the legend ‘George Barker,
Photographer, Eleven First Prize Medals, Stichmeyer &
Wyman Publishers,’ and the titles were printed on the
reverse side in six languages.
Barker’s work was used—as tipped-in heliotypes—to
illustrate James T. Gardner’s Special Report of the New
York State Survey of the preservation of the Scenery of
Niagara Falls, and Fourth Annual Report of the Trian-
gulation of the State published in 1880, and in reporting
his death in 1894 the photographic press described him
as ‘the eminent photographer of Niagara Falls.’Barker, George. Niagara Falls.
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles © The J. Paul Getty
Museum.