I had the pleasure of meeting Barbara Bussell for the first time this past June, when I was at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center for the opening of my “Outside Influence” exhibition. Barbara grew up in Estes Park and describes a childhood hiking and climbing in the Colorado mountains. She earned a BA in ceramics and sculpture from CSU Fort Collins, and moved to Aspen in 1970. Although she occasionally visited Cherie Hiser’s Center of the Eye photo program, her main art connection there was with the ceramist Paul Soldner, whose workshop and studios were based at Anderson Ranch in Snowmass Village. She rented studio space there during winters, and made ceramics.
By the late-1970s, she had moved away from ceramics in favor of photography. Similar to Aspen photographer Jill Uris’s imagery made in Ireland and Jerusalem during the late-1970s/early 1980s, much of Barbara’s image-making is aligned with political-charged countries, most especially Haiti but also Mexico, Central and South America. We followed up our Anderson Ranch meeting with a series of conversations and emails, from which this interview is constructed.
A 1981 trek to Everest Base Camp introduced Barbara to the Himalayan region and inspired her subsequent visits to Tibet. She made her first trip there in late 1986, about two years after the Chinese opened the region to international visitors. Barbara recalls that she flew to Lhasa with the intent to “make some photographs that were more than just snapshots.” Our conversation picks up there:
Barbara Bussell: There weren't a lot of people around to be subject matter except in the capital, Lhasa. Travel outside the city was extremely difficult, with transportation being limited to hitching rides in the back of trucks in order to reach the handful of locations that were open to foreign travelers. A year later, just when I was on my way to visit Tibet again, Tibetan monks staged a large-scale protest that turned violent and China closed the borders. So, unable to get into the country, I explored areas nearby, and for the next few years, went back, exploring and trying to improve my photography.
Over the next few years I explored culturally diverse regions of southwest China. What's known as Yunnan Province, for instance, was at that time quite intact and traditional, and so I got involved with photographing traditional medicine and meeting and photographing traditional doctors. In 1990, I was able to spend three weeks in Bhutan, and that was when people actually came to the forefront of my image making.
RJ: Were there any particular photographers who helped you as you were starting out?
BB: Once I really got serious, and especially when I started shooting black-and-white, there were a couple of photographers in Aspen that were pivotal in helping me along. One was Rob Millman, and then Chris Rainier, who’s become a very well-known documentary photographer. Rob taught me how to develop film according to the Books Institute method, which is a little different than at other places. And then Chris Rainier gave me the basics of printing. Chris was a great organizer. We would get together and everybody'd bring some rough prints, or slides if they were shooting those. Alan Becker would be part of that, and of course there was interaction with other photographers in Aspen too.
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[In 1993 Barbara traveled to Haiti, which—as it is now—was experiencing a turbulent period of political unrest. I have inserted hyperlinks in this section wherever some contextualization seems helpful.]
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RJ: What inspired your trip to Haiti, and how did you prepare for it?
BB: I was fascinated by an edition of Aperture titled Haiti: Feeding The Spirit [Winter 1992] and began planning an exploratory trip. Political violence had raged off and on since the 1991 military coup, so timing was key. As spring of 1993 approached, I was encouraged by a relatively calm period and called Rebecca Busselle, who had edited the Haiti issue. She gave me the names of writers and photojournalists who I should meet, saying that I would meet them all by staying at the renowned Hotel Oloffson. Weeks later I walked onto the Oloffson’s veranda and was welcomed by a slight, elegantly dressed, ever so charming Haitian man—Aubelin Jolicoeur in real life, Petit Pierre in Graham Greene’s novel, The Comedians [loosely based on events in Haiti and the Hotel Oloffson]. My stay was off to a great start and two weeks later I knew I’d found a new home (photographically speaking).
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Images above: Haiti, 1995
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RJ: It must've been incredibly disorienting to arrive in Haiti for the first time.
BB: Maybe not disorienting, it was more a combination of scary and absolutely wonderful. Actually the flight at that point went on to the Dominican Republic, and I remember being the only person getting off the plane in Port de Prince and having people look at me like, Are you kidding? And getting into a cab and seeing no one on the streets all the way to the hotel. It was the most amazing experience. During my three week stay I hired a driver and guide and made frequent day trips around the capital and into the country side. Long visits with a few writers and photographers staying at the Oloffson helped nurture my curiosity and desire to return.
I was planning a fall 1993 return when my friend and Aspen Times columnist John Colson suggested that I take six rolls of black and white film and submit the resulting images with an essay to the paper. Photographing in such chaotic conditions was totally new to me. Political violence was on the upswing again and I joined photographers daily to cover clashes between the ruling military and protesting citizens. I came back with work that the Aspen Times published, which just amazed me, because it was unsettling, politically charged imagery.
RJ: I'm trying to imagine you there actually. Were there other women photographing?
BB: Yes. Most photojournalists of note were there, and among them was a very interesting group of women. Maggie Steber was one of the primary ones and she had been photographing in Haiti for a while, way back into the eighties.
RJ: And she was supportive of you?
BB: Yes. I never got the feeling of, ‘Oh, we don't need another in this crazy world.’ It was an amazing time to interact with true pros in these fields. I was learning by doing and by observing photojournalists around me - trying to figure out why James Nachtwey was always in the right place amid the action; learning, watching and learning. Working side by side with highly regarded photojournalists was akin to taking a master class.
This was when the military was in control of the country and anyone thought to be the enemy was found dead somewhere. Even so, I began a third trip in October 1994 after the US & UN military backed the return of Haiti’s ousted president, Jean-Bertrand Aristede. The following year, I returned again to document a candidate running for president, Réne Préval, for the most part following the campaign from village to village. Seeing what a campaign trail looks like in a developing country was an interesting experience.
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Photos above: from Presidential campaign in Haiti. L-R: Rene Preval during a press interview at MPP headquarters (Peasant Movement of Papaye) in the central highlands village of Papaye; Rene Preval walks among supporters in the central highlands community of Colladere; At Pte. de Montrouts, Rene Preval and a member of his security team are carried to a sailboat waiting to take them and supporters to the island of La Gonave.
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RJ: Was your Haiti work exhibited? At Camera Obscura, for instance?
BB: Actually, I did try. I made many trips to Denver to see shows at Camera Obscura, which was a treasure of a place. I think I was probably most intrigued by Sebastiao Salgado; Camera Obscura had an exhibition of his work, I think in the early nineties [April 1991; the gallery also showed Salgado’s work in 1996, 2001, and 2008]. So I took my Haiti portfolio and visited with [gallery owner] Hal Gould, but that particular work just did not resonate with him. I had a problem with that subject matter in various venues. It's tough, so with the work that followed I transitioned out of the political and into the cultural aspects of Haiti.
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Images above: from “Haiti: Beyond Myths and Illusions.” Top Row L-R: Souvenance; St. Jacques Horse, in the sacred mud basin at Plaine-du-Norde; Sacred Waterfalls and Voodoo pilgrimage site, Saut d’Eau; Sep Manifest. Bottom Row L-R: Pilgrimage Liturgy; Rara instruments; Ritual Leaves and Candle; Voodoo Trance.
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After documenting Préval’s campaign and inauguration, I had been introduced to the country’s religious and artistic traditions. I learned that July is pilgrimage month and made plans to visit each site. The rituals were fascinating and the imagery was inspiring. Pilgrimage rituals in Haiti continued to be part of my work through 2010, although my trips were less frequent. Beginning in 2000 I traveled to sites in Mexico and Guatemala and returned to them annually until the presence of drug cartels made travel there too dangerous. My next location was a sacred glacier and ancient pilgrimage site high in the Peruvian Andes [16,500 ft. elevation], and for four consecutive years I joined tens of thousands of pilgrims for the five-day ritual (images below).
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Images above: Top Row L-R: Mexico, Acts of Penance and Venerations 1; Atonement; Guatemala, Spiritual Affirmation; Interlude. Bottom Row: Peru: Andean Pilgrimage Ritual; Ceremonial Ascent; Sanctuary Procession; Icons and Pilgrims
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My interest in the Himalayan countries resurfaced in 2016. I made trips to far western Tibet to photograph a pilgrimage around Mt Kailash and the remains of ancient kingdoms. More recently, my focus has been on the Upper Mustang in Nepal and sites of ancient Mayan cities in southern Mexico. I’m still working on photo projects but it’s fair to say that I’m semi-retired. I’m also completely old school. I never replaced Tri-X 400 with digital image capturing, and I still enjoy spending hours in the dark, printing on silver gelatin paper.
RJ: As far as I know there is no book of your work but your exhibitions include shows at the California African American Museum [CAAM], and the National Capital Building in Washington DC. Were those exhibits of your pilgrimage work? Are there catalogs available?
BB: My photographs in the Dancing In The Streets show at CAAM were taken in Haiti during what is known as Rara, which takes place during Lent. They feature lively processions of followers and musical groups playing hard-driving African rhythms. The Capital Building exhibition commemorated the 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights. My photograph shows a group of Haitians staring at a neighbor’s tortured body lying in the middle of the street (below). The image won Honorable Mention at The Rutherford Institute 1998 International Photojournalist Contest.
Haiti, 1995.
Other pilgrimage photographs of mine have been exhibited in art galleries in Colorado, Florida, and Washington DC. In 1999 the Denver Art Museum acquired three silver gelatin prints from my “ Pilgrimage In Haiti” body of work. You are correct, though, to date there is no book. Perhaps in the future.
Please leave a comment or question, and thanks for your interest in Colorado’s photo history!
The Colorado Photo History blog is the online presence for “Outside Influence: Photography in Colorado 1945-1995,” a University Press of Colorado book by Rupert Jenkins. (Note: Because of tariffs and government closures, publication is delayed until April 2026. Use the code in the coupon below to receive a 40% advance order discount. Good through publication date.)
