PORTFOLIO

PHOTOGRAPH AND ESSAY BY RICARDO BARROS

Jules Schaeffer

I spent years following in the footsteps of my photographic idols. I thought that if I could do what they did then I, too, might become a master of the medium. Now I know that I may approach their level of craft, but I can never join them in the newness of their accomplishment. The achievement is theirs. It was a challenge fixed in their time, and in their life circumstances. They did not know what lay ahead when they plunged forward into the unknown. How can we now, with our knowledge of their future, go in the opposite direction? The challenge for me—and I think for all artists—is not to mimic our heroes, but to converse with them through our works. n

Ricardo Barros’ works are in the permanent collections of eleven museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He is the author of “Facing Sculpture: A Portfolio of Portraits, Sculpture and Related Ideas.”