Martine Barrat
Photographer, filmmaker and videographer, Martine Barrat has been photographing the residents of Harlem, Brooklyn, and the South Bronx since 1970 and has been working in Japan, Cuba, and Brazil. She first gained international acclaim in 1978 with the groundbreaking video You Do The Crime, You Do The Time for the New American Filmmakers series at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The video, which depicted the lives of young gang members in the South Bronx, was a collaborative effort between Barrat and the gang members with whom she shared video equipment. In the following years, she immersed herself in the world of boxing in New York. She photographed young boys training in Harlem, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn to the Bronx, ultimately resulting in a book titled Do or Die. In the introduction Barrat states, "Upon finishing my book, my dream was for Muhammed Ali to write a few lines. Ali asked me to send him my photography. Three days later I received an overnight express envelope. It contained the pictures I'd sent him. Each one was signed differently, with each signature somehow complementing the style of the photograph. I was moved to have received this very special gift." The book included forwards by Gordon Parks …
Photographer, filmmaker and videographer, Martine Barrat has been photographing the residents of Harlem, Brooklyn, and the South Bronx since 1970 and has been working in Japan, Cuba, and Brazil. She first gained international acclaim in 1978 with the groundbreaking video You Do The Crime, You Do The Time for the New American Filmmakers series at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The video, which depicted the lives of young gang members in the South Bronx, was a collaborative effort between Barrat and the gang members with whom she shared video equipment. In the following years, she immersed herself in the world of boxing in New York. She photographed young boys training in Harlem, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn to the Bronx, ultimately resulting in a book titled Do or Die. In the introduction Barrat states, "Upon finishing my book, my dream was for Muhammed Ali to write a few lines. Ali asked me to send him my photography. Three days later I received an overnight express envelope. It contained the pictures I'd sent him. Each one was signed differently, with each signature somehow complementing the style of the photograph. I was moved to have received this very special gift." The book included forwards by Gordon Parks and Martin Scorsese.
Barrat’s photographs have appeared, in many publications, including The New York Times Magazine, Life, Vanity Fair, The Village Voice, Vogue, Paris Match, Le Monde, Die Zeit, La Republica, Libération, Kursbuch Magazine, Nikkei Business Magazine, Télérama and Cicero and numerous books in The United States, Europe and Japan. A major retrospective of her work has been presented at La Maison Europeenne de la Photographie in Paris. Barrat was named a member of the distinguished Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication in 2000.
Courtesy of the artist
Instagram: @picturegirlny
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Librairie de Paris, Paris, France
Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, NY
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Museum of the City of New York, NY
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, NY
Whitney Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY