Clive Barda


Clive Blackmore Barda OBE, FRSA is a London-based, British freelance photographer best known for capturing the performances of classical musicians and artists of the stage. During his career spanning over five decades, Barda has created a collection of over a million photographs of performers, composers, and conductors.

Early life

Barda was born in 1945 and spent his early childhood in Alexandria, Egypt, where his father was a lawyer and his mother a painter. The family returned to England in 1956. Barda attended Bryanston School and graduated from Birkbeck College, University of London, aspiring to apply his knowledge of modern languages as a commodities broker in the City. His early interest in photography was mostly documentary; while studying for his degree, he travelled to Romania to photograph the painted monasteries of Moldavia. When he was twenty, following a friend's suggestion, he attended his first concert of classical music: an evening of Viennese music conducted by John Barbirolli. Soon after, he started attending concerts several times per week, and listening regularly to BBC Radio 3.

Career

Barda decided to combine his interests in photography and classical music, and a chance encounter with a journalist for South Wales Magazine led to his first commission: photographing the harpist Susan Drake at home, on 12 November 1968. At the time, Drake's husband, John Wilbraham, was recording the Haydn and Hummel trumpet concertos and the producer asked Barda to shoot the album's sleeve. Drake then showed Barda's work to her agent, who recommended him to other artists, thus opening up opportunities for further engagements. Within a few months, Barda had his big break:
The rehearsal took place at the Queen Elizabeth Hall the following Tuesday, and Barda showed the resulting contact sheets to Barenboim a few days later, in the Royal Festival Hall's green room. There, he also met Peter Andry, a senior executive at EMI, who suggested that Barda show his pictures to the art department at EMI. This immediately led to Barda's first major commission: to photograph Yehudi Menuhin, at EMI's No. 1 Studio, Abbey Road.
by Barda
During the following decades, Barda has portrayed the world's leading classical musicians, as well as performers in opera, dance, theatre and musicals, as a freelance photographer. In her review of Barda's book Performance! for The Guardian, Charlotte Higgins stated:
Barda has been closely associated with major British locations, such as the
Barbican Hall,
Edinburgh International Festival,
English National Opera,
Glyndebourne Festival Opera,
Her Majesty's Theatre,
National Theatre,
Opera North,
Queen Elizabeth Hall,
Queen's Hall,
Royal Albert Hall,
Royal Festival Hall,
Royal Lyceum Theatre,
Royal Opera House,
Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon,
St John's, Smith Square,
Usher Hall,
and Welsh National Opera.
He has also worked abroad: in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, the U.S., and China. He has taken photographs during rehearsals and recordings in the studios of AIR Studios, the BBC, CBS, EMI's Abbey Road Studios, Olympic Studios, among others, as well as at the home venues of major orchestras such as the LSO.
By 2012, Barda had already produced more than a million photographs, and has been referred to as the doyen of British music photography.

Method

When commissioned for a project, Barda asks what music will be played, since it is his understanding of the piece that will enable him to anticipate the decisive split second at which a good picture might be taken. As he explained: "Music is constantly punctuated. There are narrative passages, there are peaks and troughs. The pictures occur at the peaks, the climaxes. Even if you don't know the music—though it helps if you do—you develop a sixth sense for these highs."
Vladimir Ashkenazy has stated that one of the secrets of Barda’s success "is his rare gift of being unnoticed, discreet and unobtrusive while doing his work."

Personal life

In 1970, Barda married Rosalind Mary Whiteley; they have three sons.

Exhibitions

After a decade as a professional photographer, Barda began to exhibit his work, in the UK and abroad:
In 1990, Barda founded the Performing Arts Library, to showcase his own collection and the work of other photographers specializing in the arts. This project evolved into ArenaPAL in 1997.
Barda's work is also held in the following public collections:

Books by Barda