Barbara
Boissevain
Barbara Boissevain
Barbara Boissevain is a California based contemporary visual artist and photographer whose work focuses on the impact of human activity on the environment. Nature’s ability to regenerate and reclaim human altered landscapes is a central theme in her work.
Boissevain was born in Cleveland, Ohio and raised in Silicon Valley. She studied painting at Parsons School of Design in New York before immersing herself in photography, earning a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from San Jose State University.
Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe, including Mémoire De L'Avenir, Paris; the Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA; Galerie Numero Cinq, Arles, France; and the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland.
In 2009 Boissevain published her first book, titled Children of the Rainbow, which documented the humanitarian challenges facing Quechua communities in Peru due to climate change. Her book “Salt of the Earth” was published by Kehrer Verlag in the Fall of 2023, and was chosen as one of Wired Magazine’s best photo books of 2023.
Boissevain’s photographs are in numerous public and private collections, including the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington D.C.; the Google Corporate Art Collection, Sunnyvale, CA; and the De Pietri Artphilein Foundation, Lugano, Switzerland. Learn More