Barbara Ringer, an artist whose artwork reflects her childhood dreams, fantasies and terrors...

Peggy Nichols
Mar 9, 2024
2 min read

'Memory', digital photography, archival prints, dimensions variable.

Phantasmagoria Series:

'Phantasmagoria is defined as a shifting series of phantasms, illusions, or deceptive appearances, as in a dream or as created by the imagination.

Growing up I had two things that saved me: movies and my doll. I was a quiet child who used her doll to speak for her, and to navigate the dangers of home life. As an adult I’ve found my niche telling stories about the darker side of childhood, the buried memories, and the anxieties that permeate. With time these stories are getting more surreal, and darker.

This series had almost an accidental start: I had a chance to do a photo shoot in a house awaiting renovation. I brought dolls with me but quickly saw they looked all wrong – so I stepped in. The resulting raw material is allowing me to create more layered images, and it's only after I’m finished that I get a sense of the subconscious impulses behind them. In a way it’s allowing me to evoke the movies I had dreamed of making and at the same time release disturbing thoughts.'

'Agoraphobia', digital photography, archival prints, dimensions variable.

left to right: 'Inside/Out', digital photography, archival prints, dimensions variable., 'Sciophobia', digital photography, archival prints, dimensions variable., 'Thick', digital photography, archival prints, dimensions variable.

'Lesson One', digital photography, archival prints, dimensions variable.

Barbara Ringer was born and raised in the housing projects of the South Bronx. Leaving home early, she attended NYU for cinema studies, where she was strongly influenced by the work of Alfred Hitchcock and Ingmar Bergman.

After college she worked for video production studios in New York, Germany, and Switzerland. Settling down in Connecticut, she continued to use her camera to create stories, and eventually transitioned from the b&w darkroom to digital color.

With vintage dolls, toys, a dilapidated mannequin, and lately herself, she makes images that explore the darker moments of childhood, and the adult anxieties that follow.

Barbara is a CAMP GALLERY artist, and her artwork is included on both their website and on Artsy.

She is also a member of the Silvermine Artists Guild, Ridgefield Guild of Artists, and the Artists Collective of Westport. Her artwork has been in numerous exhibitions in New York and Connecticut.

'Somniphobia', digital photography, archival prints, dimensions variable.

left to right: 'Bathmophobia', digital photography, archival print, dimensions variable., 'One Week', digital photography, archival print, dimensions variable., 'Descent', digital photography, archival print, dimensions variable.

'Wednesday', digital print, archival prints, dimensions variable.

left to right: 'Carriage', digital photography, archival prints, dimensions variable., 'Woods', digital photography, archival prints, dimensions variable., 'Still Life', digital photography, archival prints, dimensions variable.

'Friday', digital photography, archival prints, dimensions variable.

Child's Play Series:

'Hide and Seek', digital photography, archival print, dimensions variable.

left to right: 'Broken', digital photography, archival prints, dimensions variable., 'Soft Secret', digital photography, archival prints, dimensions variable., 'Reach', digital photography, archival prints, dimensions variable.