Ondrea Barbe is a Santa Cruz based artist whose photographic and filmmaking practices bridge the fields of commercial advertising, documentary and fine art. Though she has spent significant time abroad, including seven years in Paris, and twenty years in NYC, Ondrea’s vision continues to be influenced by the clarity of light in her native Central and Northern California.

She has been a part of many group exhibitions in NYC including, In-Haus’s NOWNY15; Soho Photo Gallery; GenArt; and was the 2009 recipient of the PX3 People’s Choice Award in Portraiture. In 2003, she was listed as one of PDN’s 30 Photographers To Watch and in 2011-2014 held a position on the ICP Education Committee where she continues to participate and volunteer for the ICP’s many community programs and partnerships.

Commercial clients include L’oreal, Garnier, Olay, Clinique, Aussi, Bobbi Brown, Target, Aveeno, Jane Iredale, and Pantene. Celebrity clients include Meryl Streep, Tina Fey, Amanda Seyfried, Rita Ora, Amy Adams, Sigourney Weaver, Sarah Jessica Parker and Sally Field to name just a few.

I am particularly drawn to the elegant and robust beauty of the Peony and to the great abundance of tree blossoms. (Cherry, Apple, Quince..)

In the recent work, blooms are cut free from their traditional setting in the landscape and photographed in the controlled light of the studio where I can better explore their potential for movement, emotionality and structural complexity. As with my portrait and commercial photography, I always work from a desire to get closer, to seek the source of my subject’s beauty. This truth is often interior and impossible to capture, but the seeking is what my work relies on. The seeking is what defines my artistic practice.