Bio

Diane Barker is a photographer and artist based in a small Worcestershire village in the U.K. She studied Art History at the University of East Anglia and went on to do an MA involving a landscape photo project at the University of Central England. Diane's nomadic roots trace back to the 70s as a hippie living in a camper van in America, and in the late 1970s she met her first Tibetans, when HH the 16th Karmapa, and his entourage, visited Wales, in the UK.

In the 1980s she focussed on painting mandalas in watercolour, which depicted landscapes and were exhibited widely in London and around the UK.

In the 1990s, her life changed completely when she travelled to India and met, for the first time, Tibetan communities in various parts of north India including McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala, where she met HH the Dalai Lama. These experiences inspired her to document the lives of Tibetans through photography (along with those of Indian village people in the Himalayan foothills.) Many of the images taken at that time were accepted by the British Photo Library Tibet Images in 1992. Becoming part of this Library encouraged her to focus entirely on Photography.

She first encountered Tibetan nomads, or drokpa, in 1999 in the Changthang of Ladakh and fell in love with the rawness, beauty and simplicity of their traditional earth-based culture. Ever since then, the Tibetan nomads became her photographic obsession and the subject of her heart. Since 2000 she has travelled extensively in eastern Tibet (now part of Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai, and Yunnan Provinces, China) documenting nomad life.

She has created solo exhibitions which have toured the UK, as well as travelling as far afield as Mumbai. Many of her photos have also been exhibited in group shows in New York, London, Delhi and Bengaluru. Her work has also appeared in many books, magazines and on-line platforms.

In 2023, Peter Gill of Graffeg Books gave her the opportunity to present her work to a wider audience, creating "Portraits of Tibet".

Other solo published works include "Tibetan Prayer Flags" (Connections Book Publishing) and "The Eternal Land" (East West Publications).

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Resumé

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SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

2011 "The Scent of Light"   City Art Gallery, Worcester
2004 "Drokpa –People of the Solitudes"   Midlands Art Centre, Birmingham; Queen Elizabeth Hospital Cancer Wing, Birmingham
2003 "Drokpa – People of the Solitudes"   Plough Arts Centre, Torrington, Devon; The Shirehall, Bodmin, Cornwall; Yew Tree Gallery, Morvah, Cornwall; The Atkinson Gallery, Millfield School, Street, Somerset
2002 "Drokpa – People of the Solitudes"   Stamford Arts Centre, Lincolnshire; Kidderminster Library Gallery, Kidderminster
2001 "Drokpa – People of the Solitudes"   City Art Gallery, Worcester
2000 "Free Spirits"   Festival of Tibet 2000, Bombay; Stamford Arts Centre, Lincolnshire; Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London
1999 "Free Spirits"   Centre for Photography as an Art Form, Bombay; Wembley Conference Centre, London; The Music Hall, Shrewsbury; Midlands Art Centre, Birmingham; The King's School, Worcester
1997/8 "Free Spirits"   Coombe Lodge Studio, Malvern; Kidderminster Library Gallery; Ruskin Mill,Nailsworth, Gloucestershire; City Art Gallery, Worcester
1993 "Images from the Heart"   Old Mayor's Parlour Gallery, Hereford
1992 City Art Gallery,Worcester
1991 Country Works Gallery, Sawmills, Nr. Newtown, Mongomeryshire
1986 "Wheel of Dreams"   Minsky's Gallery, London
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TWO PERSON & GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

2024 "Silver and Light"   The Canwood Art Gallery, Hereford
2023 "Five Photographers and Tom"   Part of Hereford Art Week (H'Art), Church House, Acton Beauchamp, Herefordshire
2015 "Legacy of Photojournalism"   Exhibit 320, Delhi
2014 "Tendrel – Interconnections"  Tibet House, New York
"Spring Shoots"  Yew Tree Gallery, Morvah, Cornwall
2007 "Womankind"  Hooper's Gallery, London
2005 "Hope for Children"  Hoopers Gallery, London
2004 "Images of Tibet"  Hoopers Gallery, London
2002 "Homegrown"   Chuck Works, Birmingham
2001 "Tibet"   Edward Carter Gallery, New York
1997 1997 "Wanderlust Travel Photograph of the Year Competition"   Olympia, London; Stamford's Bookshop, Covent Garden, London; The Royal Geographical Society, London
1996 "Tibet, A Culture Under Threat"   Hamilton's Gallery, London
"The River"   City Art Gallery, Worcester
1994 "The Picturesque Landscape"  Hereford City Art Gallery; Nottingham City Art Gallery
1992 "Man and Environment in Harmony"  Four Millbank, London (Part of the RA Exhibition 'Wisdom and Compassion ')
"Gathering Together"  Burgh House, London
1987/9 Kilvert Gallery, Clyro, Herefordshire
1985 "The Religious Spirit in Contemporary Art"  Westminster Cathedral, London
1981 "Tracks and Traces"  Saddleworth Museum and Art Gallery, Uppermill
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AWARDS AND EXHIBITION SUPPORT:

2011 Worcester City Art Gallery
The Elmley Foundation
Worcestershire County Arts Fund
2004 Seeing the Light (portfolio promotion) through UK Trade and Investment
2002 The Elmley Foundation
West Midlands Arts
2001 2001 Worcester City Art Gallery
The Elmley Foundation
2000 2000 Festival of Tibet 2000, Bombay, India
1999 The Elmley Foundation
City Art Gallery, Worcester
Midlands Art Centre, Birmingham
1997 Supported by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of England
1992 City Art Gallery, Worcester
1983 Oppenheim John Downes Memorial Award
1981 North West Arts

NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES:

Marie Claire (USA, Germany, Spain and Russia); The Independent; BBC Worldwide Magazine; Manadsjournalen (Sweden); New Scientist; Wanderlust; Reincarnation;; Cho Yang (India); The Middle Way; Dharmalife; The Lady; The Times of India; The Indian Express; Mid-Day (India); The Sunday Free Press Journal (India); The Sunday Telegraph Magazine; The Financial Times; Photo Art International; Living Lightly; Caduceus; Resurgence

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PUBLISHERS:

Evans Brothers; Random House; National Curriculum Educational Pack; Harper Collins (UK); Quest (USA); Time-Life Books (USA); The Bridgewater Book Company; Aperture; Roli Books/Lustre Press; Wanderlust Publications; RotoVision; David and Charles; The Open University; The Meridian Trust; Connections Book Publishing; Reader's Digest (Germany); Duncan Baird; Wheelhouse Creative; Egmont Richter

SOLO PUBLISHED WORK:

"Portraits of Tibet"   Graffeg Books
"Tibetan Prayer Flags"   Connections Book Publishing
"The Eternal Land"   East West Publications

ON-LINE SOLO FEATURES:

2018 https://emergencemagazine.org/story/in-search-of-black-tents/ 
2017 https://www.moowon.com/stories/dragons-drokpa-and-a-drukpa-kargyu-master 
2016 http://www.moowon.com/stories/spirits-rituals-and-festivals-of-the-drokpas 
https://www.globalonenessproject.org/library/photo-essays/drokpa-nomadic-mountain-people-tibet 
2015 http://www.moowon.com/stories/drokpa-nomads-of-eastern-tibet