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Over the past 30 years, Barda has photographed anyone who is anyone in music, from late, great luminaries such as Lucia Popp, Olivier Messiaen, Benjamin Britten and Charles Groves to today's young stars such as Evgeny Kissin, David Daniels and Cecilia Bartoli.
— Charlotte Higgins, The classical picture show [8]
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. [4] [10]
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. [4] [10]
By 2012, Barda had already produced more than a million photographs, [11] : 6 and has been referred to as the doyen of British music photography. [12]
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." [8]
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." [4] : 7
The fact that I often spent hours with the artists and was perceived as a member of the recording team fed into my work in a number of ways (...) bolstering my sense of affinity with the musicians and their work.
— Clive Barda, Performance! Musicians in Photographs, "An Interview with Clive Barda" by Graeme Kay
In 1970, Barda married Rosalind Mary Whiteley; they have three sons. [3]
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 (PAL), to showcase his own collection and the work of other photographers specializing in the arts. [4] : 19 This project evolved into ArenaPAL in 1997.
Barda's work is also held in the following public collections: [19]
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Clive Barda has been photographing the great and good of classical music for more than three decades, shooting 750,000 pictures.
A permanent exhibition of 38 of Barda's photos is to be unveiled tomorrow in the Bechstein Room of the Wigmore Hall in London, each depicting a regular "Wigmore artist"...