Clive Barber Photography

About

I have always enjoyed taking and looking at photographs. My father was an avid amateur photographer and sometimes had a darkroom in the home so I suppose the interest was initially encouraged by him. The first camera I remember using was probably in the mid 1960’s and might have been a Kodak Brownie Flashmite or something very similar. Throughout my school years I had a few cameras such as an Exakta, a Praktica and for a long time a Pentax Spotmatic SP500.

Having a career as a professional photographer never seriously entered my mind until after I finished high school. I would often look at photo books and magazine ads and think I wasn’t good enough. But one day I realized I wouldn’t really know unless I tried. In late 1977 I applied and was accepted into the 'Photographic Arts' program at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now called Ryerson University) in Toronto and studied there until 1981 when I accepted a full-time assistant job to an established commercial photographer in the city.

Commercial Work

After a few years of full-time assisting I decided it was time to seek out my own assignments and build a client base. I enjoyed working in the controlled environment of the studio and for the first several years the majority of my work was studio based using a large format camera. Work came primarily from advertising agencies and design houses and often I worked to strict layouts. Over the years I was fortunate to shoot for a variety of clients including: Molson Brewery, Labatt Brewing Company, Coca Cola, Canada Dry, Cadbury Chocolates, Mitsubishi, Noxema Cream and Cover Girl Make-up, Revlon Cosmetics, Air Canada and Magna International. I considered myself a general commercial studio photographer, shooting a variety of different genres such as, product, room sets, people, food, corporate and packaging. My images were reproduced in regional and national advertising campaigns as well as brochures, packaging, POP, internal use.

In the early 1990’s, I switched over to mostly location work and in particular industrial photography. It was not that long before I found myself traveling around North America and England photographing a range of subjects from people, product, interiors/exteriors to large machinery and production assembly line shots. Most of this work tended to be reproduced in corporate Annual Reports.

Golf Course Photography

In 1995 an unexpected referral came my way, quickly leading me to specialize solely in golf course photography. To this day I am not certain why the advertising agency contacted me, especially since I knew very little about the sport and had not even played a round of golf. In any case, it was most fortuitous because the client was arguably Canada's most premier golf course at the time. I arrived at this beautiful, peaceful location just prior to sunrise, got in a golf cart and set off alone looking to capture photographs. I knew almost immediately it was a perfect fit for me and something I wanted to pursue and excel at.

Professional golf photography, especially in Canada was in its infancy. But that was all about to change. Around this time a certain young, exciting, and incredibly talented American amateur golfer moved up to the pros and the popularity of the game exploded. It seemed almost everyone was interested in the game and new golf courses were opening everywhere. The need for golf courses to have successful golf imagery to promote their club was more important than ever before. The timing was ideal for me to enter the market.

Working on location - 2008
Working on location - 2008

Over 20 plus years of shooting golf courses, my work has taken me across Canada, USA, the UK and Ireland photographing some of the world’s best golf destinations and loviest areas for a variety of clients including numerous golf clubs, golf architects, golf magazines, book publishers, advertising agencies etc, etc. To everyone I worked with, thank you!

Present Photography

After more than 35 years as an independent working photographer I am no longer accepting commissions.

These days I have returned to taking pictures for myself. Something I admit I had forgotten how to do! This website is now a place to display personal photographs, but you can still find a selection of my golf course photography online here.