The photographs of Jeannette Montgomery Barron reveal hidden secrets
Photograph by Dylan Everett
By Cynthia Hochswender
In the 21st century, everyone who has a mobile phone can take a photograph. But not everyone can create art with light and a lens. The difference? Art can show us a familiar face or place in a way that is new, unexpected, and revealing.
And deeply talented photographers such as Jeannette Montgomery Barron can bring out the true self that so many of us hide behind a public facade.
Montgomery Barron moved to New York City in the late 1970s to study at the International Center of Photography. She sharpened her technical skills there, and also realized that the wacky world of disco-era New York City wasn’t all that different from her native Atlanta, Georgia. In the South, everyone had a polite public persona. In Manhattan, everyone had an outrageous public persona that they shared proudly with the world.
Montgomery Barron has a natural gift for finding the real person inside, drawing that person out, and capturing it in images. She began her career by calling on intriguing figures in the art world, such as Francesco Clemente (who has since become a close friend). Assignments shooting for magazines and art galleries followed, with subjects that ranged from Bianca Jagger to Keith Haring to Jean Michel Basquiat.
Montgomery Barron recently compiled her photos of Basquiat in a book, called “JMB”: her own initials as well as those of the artist (Montgomery Barron is married to South Kent gallery owner James Barron). She has also done a book of portraits of self-portraitist Cindy Sherman; a photo memoir of life in Rome, with accompanying essay by Andre Aciman; and a moving collection of photos of favorite clothes of her mother, an Atlanta socialite who succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease at the end of her life.
For someone who has made a career out of photographing people who create art and often turn their own lives into artwork, Montgomery Barron has been and remains remarkably “herself.” She is, in every sense, completely honest. These qualities come through in her portraits—which is one reason why her work continues to be in demand.
Of course, anyone can seek honesty in a photo shoot … but that can backfire, and make the subject anxious. Montgomery Barron exudes an almost mystical sense of calm, even when she is on a fashion shoot with a dozen stylists (clothing, makeup, hair, and more)—and she is extraordinarily gentle.
“As I age, I feel more deeply how important it is to be kind to people,” she says.
Although she says she “couldn’t wait to get out of Georgia” in her youth, she now finds that a slower life appeals to her. She is often on the road for work; and she and her husband travel often to Rome, where they lived for 11 years before returning to what had been their weekend house in South Kent.
“I appreciate living here more and more,” she confides. “Everytime I come back after going away, I feel like I’m living in the perfect place.”—jeannettemontgomerybarron.com
