Barry Iverson

Barry Iverson is known for being a former photojournalist for Time Magazine for 26 years. His adventure in the Middle East started in 1980 shortly after the Camp David Accords. He covered all political, economic, royal, presidential, and international events in the Middle East from 1981-2007. His work covers some of the most important events of the 20th and 21st centuries, including the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat; Desert Storm; the counter-attacks on Al Qaeda in Afghanistan in the aftermath of September 11th; visits of international leaders and figures such as Nelson Mandela, Princess Diana, Hillary Clinton, and the many wars of that period.

Beyond his photojournalistic work lies another passion: his fine artworks and collections. In 1985, he won a Fulbright Scholarship to research the history of photography in Egypt, that led to the publication of “Comparative Views of Egypt.”

Iverson is a graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Iverson has exhibited his fine art and traveling exhibitions all over the world, including galleries located in New York, Chicago, Dubai, and Cairo. His work is characterized by a multiplicity of interests including the built environment, the desert, and documentary fiction. While black and white remains the heart and soul of his practice, it was his fascination with master Cairo portrait photographer Van Leo’s hand coloring work that influenced and led him to begin coloring his own work. It added a particular retro panache feel to his Cairo works and he has expanded it to include most of his series.

It was the early works and study of 19th century photographers like Francis Frith, John B. Greene, Maxime Du Camp, the Hunt/Baker duo as well as Walker Evans and Robert Frank that affected Iverson’s own personal vision and style. Iverson’s work references the Near East and his practice is rooted in the New Topographics movement of the 1970s, and further shaped by photographic history, documentary work, and cinematic influences.

Iverson’s fine art portfolios include The Tour, Still, EDV I & II, Cairo I & II, Antiquity, Egyptian Portraits, Comparative Views of Egypt, Aged, The Cinders of Gawhara Palace, Sand & Stone, Comparative Views of Harvard, Immortality, Portals and published Comparative Views of Egypt (1994) and Egypt 1900: The View Through Postcards (1993).

Iverson currently lives in Cairo and is presently working on a third desert portfolio, as well as a Lost Cairo portfolio. While exploring new distribution channels, he came to know OCM+E and is excited to participate in the NFT space.