Sam Barber

Samuel Donald Ernest Barber was born on June 30, 1944, in Week St Mary, Cornwall, England. In 1959 he took his camera to the harbor at Macduff, Scotland, and photographed the lives of the commercial fishermen there, a series he titled “Life on the Waves.” That experience launched a lifetime of photography that carried him from the United Kingdom to the USA, Thailand, Australia, and the South Seas Islands.

Photography became his trade as well as his art. He owned photography studios and a camera store with custom printing, and he never gave up the slow magic of the craft, shooting large format film and processing it himself to the end. He settled in Washington, Utah, where he taught photography seminars, showed his work in local galleries, and explored the Southern Utah desert on his ATV, looking for the next landscape: old buildings, waterfalls, artifacts, Native American art and dwellings, and the remote canyon country he loved.

In his own words: “With my photography, I aim to capture images which celebrate the variety of life, to show the vibrant colors of the world.”

Sam once attended a photo session hosted by Ansel Adams. Someone in the group asked Adams why he did not sell his photographs as limited editions, and Adams answered that he wanted his art to be seen by as many people as possible, not by an exclusive few. That stuck with Sam for the rest of his life: affordable art for all to enjoy, and knowledge given away just as freely.

That generosity became the Semper Crescente Book of Photographic Terms, which he wrote for his students: an always-growing collection of definitions, techniques, hints, and examples. It was never meant to be finished. That was the point of the name. This site preserves it and keeps it growing.

He is remembered by Susan, his family, and the many students who still hear his voice in their heads when they check their exposure twice.