From the moment he could walk, Tom Barrows was fiddling with a camera.
Barrowsโ father, George, was instrumental in piquing his sonโs interest in photography. George, a reporter for the Washington Post in the 1920s and โ30s and an early member of the National Press Club, always was holding a camera as he covered everything from transportation to the White House.
โHe had an old Crown Graphic for press work,โ says Barrows. โEventually (my parents) bought me a Brownie camera, and I started taking pictures from there.โ
Barrows, 69, largely followed in his fatherโs footsteps through high school in Minnesota and college at Colorado State University, taking photos for the yearbook and newspaper. He would continue photographing off and on until retiring from FedEx in 2014, switching from film to digital cameras along the way. Since then, heโs made more of the opportunity to photograph Evansville through the lens of his trusty Fujifilm mirrorless cameras.
Barrows spends much of his time now managing the Evansville Photography Group page on Facebook and mentoring enthusiasts on the art of photography and Photoshop, but he never misses an opportunity to capture the areaโs unique scenery and people.
โIโve always wanted to do something creative, and I donโt have a creative bone in my body,โ he says. โI couldnโt carry a tune in a wheelbarrow. I canโt even do the cowbell. (Photography is) the one thing that I can do. I canโt do anything else, but I can take a picture.โ
How has photography evolved since you first picked up a camera?
Itโs become more democratic. Back in the film days, you had to be a chemist. You had to love the smell of the chemicals and the feel of it and be able to mix it in time.
I donโt know why, but it seemed limited to mainly male photographers back then โ not that there werenโt some excellent female photographers, but the gender roles have changed since then, because now itโs the inverse. Itโs just a different environment, and digital photography has made it for the masses. Everything is done using software now instead of a chemical bath.
Describe your process and style.
I generally shoot with a plan to shoot. If Iโm going out to Blue Grass Fish & Wildlife Area to shoot a sunset, I kind of know what Iโm going to do, and it just becomes the process of figuring out where Iโm going to do it. And then what happens when things donโt quite work out, like when a sunset doesnโt become a beautiful orange, pink sky, but just turns gray and dull, what do you shoot then? Sometimes, Iโll turn around and go home. You donโt always have to take a photo. Iโve always got a plan as to what I want to do, shooting with intent, and then try and get it as right as I can. I donโt want to spend hours and hours in software trying to fix something that I could have gotten right in the camera.
As far as my style, I think I look at it more with a journalistic eye. Iโm trying to get the emphasis on the thing in the photo that I think is the most important and reduce things to the lowest common denominator. If thereโs extra junk around the outsides, I crop it out. With what I take, Iโm trying to tell a story. Not every picture has a story. It may just be a texture or an interesting image, but I much prefer going for something that makes people think a little bit.
Tell us about Evansville Photography Group.
Jason Massey was the creator. He created it in 2014 and I joined shortly after, and between the two of us, we just built it up. I remember us having trouble getting to 200 members, and now weโre at almost 6,000. It has grown substantially, and weโre kind of proud that it is all local โ not just Evansville, but the Tri-State. (Editorโs note: Massey, a former Evansville resident, has since undertaken traveling full time; see โHit The Road,โ July/August 2019 Evansville Living.)
About 95 percent of the people are living within this area. We have a few expatriates who have moved on and want to keep up. Some of them are photographers, and some of them just want to look at the pretty pictures or remember what home looks like.
Youโve mentored several photography enthusiasts. Whatโs behind your willingness to collaborate with other photographers?
I like to involve people if I go out. We have meetups where I teach Milky Way photography and astro photography. Weโll go out at two in the morning around this time of year, or eight or nine in the evening later in the year as the stars align themselves. I really love to collaborate on things. When Jason Massey was here, we started what we called garage sessions. We would meet at Jasonโs garage and get three or four photographers, find a couple of models, and then work on learning a certain type of lighting or do a certain theme for a photo shoot, and weโd bounce ideas back and forth. Itโs just so much more enjoyable to do it that way with somebody and share the results, see what everyone will come out with thatโs something unique and different. Itโs not like weโre in competition with one another. Itโs about getting out and doing whatโs fun. I really enjoy it when everyone comes in to do their shoots, and I always make myself available and I get just as much enjoyment out of seeing their results.
