"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming - WOW - WHAT A RIDE!"

— Anonymous

Artist Statement

Photography enables me to break down the boundaries between my internal and external experience. In a world of infinite images successfully capturing those that are personally compelling is magical. As I indulge my passion for travel the experience is intensified by the search for images that distill the moment, reflect the colors and textures of a place or that separates the dynamic detail from its surroundings.

I tend to continuously scan my environment for the arresting picture even if I'm not photographing. I am constantly evaluating what I see, isolating the component parts, gauging changing light and luxuriating in the movement of color through my life. I am, therefore, rarely bored. My primary challenge artistically is to capture visually the emotional content of what is this incredibly rich and complex world in which I live. When I succeed the exhilaration is indescribable.

Biography

Barbara Levy Kipper is the retired Chairman of the Chas. Levy Company as well as a published photographer. Her work has been exhibited at several Chicago gallery shows and will be on display at the Art Institute of Chicago as part of the summer exhibition Vanishing Beauty: Asian Jewelry and Ritual Objects from the Barbara and David Kipper Collection. The exhibition will run at the Art Institute from June 19 – August 21, 2016. The catalogue which also contains a number of her photographs will be available at the museum as well as on Amazon.

Barbara’s love of travel began in 1956 at 13, when she and her parents went to Europe for two months. How any of them survived still talking to one another is amazing. As an adult her passion for travel accelerated with trips to Africa and in 1968 an overland Land Rover expedition to Afghanistan. Since then she has made over twenty trips to Southern Africa and more than ten to India. Other countries include Turkey, Nepal, rural China, Viet Nam, Cambodia, and Thailand not to mention a number in Europe.

Once she discovered photography she deepened her enormous love of gear and of connecting with the people and animals that came into focus. It’s been an intense love affair.

Barbara has a love of history and is currently exploring the literature of the Silk Road, its early controversial explorers and treasure hunters as well as Mongolia and Genghis Khan.

She, and her late husband David, a clinical psychologist, traveled the world with great enthusiasm. Together they brought the Joffrey Ballet to Chicago and enjoyed much creative philanthropy. Barbara has two daughters, Talia and Tamar, as well as four grandchildren, Anya, Eli, Noa and Asher. She feels blessed to have sons-in- law, Anthony and Elan, whom she adores.