Using vintage toys and dolls, I set up and photograph scenarios that express the darker moments of childhood. Sometimes creepy, sometimes comical, these narratives represent the flip side of the family album: moments where trauma either has or is about to happen. I also use a dilapidated mannequin as surrogate for a series exploring adult phobias. I usually create my own framing devices out of reclaimed wood or metal.
Born and raised in the South Bronx, Barbara Ringer studied film at NYU and spent many years traveling and working for television production companies in Switzerland and Germany. After settling in Ridgefield, Connecticut, she focused on photography, transitioning from the black and white darkroom to color digital.
Her artwork has been in numerous gallery exhibitions in New York and Connecticut, and she is currently a member of the Silvermine Guild of Artists, the Ridgefield Guild of Artists, and the Artists Collective of Westport.
“Barbara Ringer delves deeply into our subconscious by mining childhood associations and memories through the toys we all once so innocently enjoyed.â€
– Douglas Hyland, Director of the New Britain Museum of American Art
and juror of SOLOS 2016 Westport Arts Center