Barbara Cole is a Toronto-born fine art photographer celebrated for her dreamlike imagery and inventive use of photographic techniques, including underwater photography and modernized wet collodion. Her work explores themes of transformation, weightlessness, and self-discovery, capturing figures in states of transition and reflection.
Throughout her career, Cole has worked internationally on commercial projects and has created several large-scale commissions, including an installation for the atrium at the M. Lau Breast Cancer Centre in Toronto’s Princess Margaret Hospital. Her series Underworld was exhibited at the Canadian Embassies in Tokyo and Washington, D.C.
Cole has won prestigious awards, including the Grand Prize at the Festival International de la Photographie de Mode in Cannes and third prize at the International Photography Awards in New York. In 2012, the acclaimed documentary series Snapshot: The Art of Photography II featured an episode devoted exclusively to Cole’s photographic practice, and her most recent book, Between Worlds, was published by teNeues in 2023.
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Which ’hood are you in?
Spadina Village
What do you do?
I’m a fine art photographer working both underwater and above since 1982
What are you currently working on?
Multiple projects, both in water and the studio
Where can we find your work?
Bau-Xi Gallery, both Toronto and Vancouver, Galerie de Bellefeuille in Montreal, Holden Luntz Gallery in Palm Beach and Art Angels in Los Angeles.
