Autism Success Formula

This is brief introduction video to provide an insight into a company called Autism Success Formula who I have been working for over the past couple of months as a job coach.

More webisodes to follow in the near future.

Filmed and edited by Sam Barker
Music: Ideals - Eyes Open

Fresh Daily

New York MC's and DJ's Fresh Daily, Scienze, Chuck Le Garcon and King I Divine along side Ipswich's Booda French, Chrome & Ill inspired performing live at the last ever Rapsploitation Session at The Swan Pub in Ipswich on 16/10/13.
Thanks to all who came along, and to everybody who attended any of the previous Rapsploitation Sessions over the past 7 years.
Here's the edit I made below...

Along The Way. The hanging of.

Video created by Chris Driver.

A time lapse edit of the hanging of my Along The Way exhibition in Ipswich Town Hall at Snobs Coffee/Gallery 1.

Along The Way is open now. Hope to see you all on Friday for a drink at the opening party.

with love- SB x

Along The Way preview - part 2

part 2

A short preview of some of my favourite pieces from the exhibition.

Video created by Nick Williamson.

Along The Way is officially open from today until March 30th.

Opening event this Friday 15th.

Along The Way preview - part 1

Part 1

A short preview of some of my favourite pieces from the exhibition.

Video created by Nick Williamson

The Swan - the only alternative

This is a promotional short about The Swan Pub in Ipswich. The Swan is somewhere I have spent, and do spend many hours in, a sort of home from home. This video gives a brief lowdown of the place and covers part of it's musical history. 

Ipswich would not be the same without it. Long live The Swan.

Created by Nick Williamson and I.

Soundtrack 

- 61 Grace by Booda French -

Along The Way - coming to Ipswich

After the success of my "Along The Way" exhibition at the Cindy Frey Art Gallery over in Belgium, it gives me great pleasure to announce that I will be bringing it to my home town, Ipswich. 

It will be open from March 12th until March 30th in the Town Hall gallery, aka, Snobs Coffee.

For the opening event on Friday 15th March, I've booked some musical gems. 

Bessie Tuner, Oliver Croome and Ideals. 

This will sadly be one of the last or maybe even THE last time anyone will get to see Ideals live, I'm honoured to have them come and play at this.

Free entry, and champagne on me (while it lasts, first come first served)

Snobs coffee will be open with a bar stocked with your favorite local beers and wines.

All the people below aided me in making this happen. Huge thanks to them all. 

Snobs Coffee

Love One

Atrium Studios

More info and a competition to follow soon.

With Love

-SB x

Sam Barker Photography - Facebook

Freedom Tattoos

Freedom Tattoo shop in Ipswich is owned and run by tattoo artist, Stan Buckles.

His long standing reputation as THE tattooist to go to in the area, speaks for itself. The standard of work he produces is phenomenal. Freedom Tattoo shop has been around for many years now, and Stan's team is great. It's more like a family of artists.

These are some of the photos I shot in Freedom just a couple of weeks ago for their new flyers/posters/promo.

Freedom contact info:

Facebook Page

Phone: 01473 232434

69 Westgate Street, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP1 3DZ (entrance at side in Lady Lane)

Hub BMX Store

Hub BMX is an Ipswich based BMX store. Owned and run by rider Jimmy Tarrent.

Jimmy approached me about making a video to help show off his new shop, and what it's all about. 

So I called up my creative video partner Nick Williamson, we got our heads together and made this happen...

Dont forget to check out the Hub BMX site at hubbmxstore.co.uk
Keep updated on offers and news by hitting Like on the Facebook page here - Hub BMX - Facebook

Support independent stores! 

Hub BMX owner, Jimmy, and some shots of the shop.

Polar Collective

Polar Collective are a young, fun, five piece pop band. I did this shoot with them just last week, I've not had this much fun on a shoot in a while. SOOOO much energy and chemistry between them, constant banter and laughs.

They have been at it for about a year now, but they play like a band thats been together for much longer. Definitely one to watch.

Check them out at the links below...

Polar Collective- Facebook

Polar Collective- Twitter

Polar Collective- Youtube

polarcollective.co.uk

Polar Collective are Jake, Adam, Ally, Gryphen & Luke.

For bookings and enquiries please contact sophie@nineacremanagement.com

Cindy Frey

I went back to Belgium for a very short but very sweet visit at the beginning of this week, during my 36 hours there I managed to do a shoot with Cindy Frey, here are the shots. This was possibly one of the easiest and most enjoyable shoots I've done recently.
For those of you who don't know, Cindy is not only a fantastic model, she is a wonderful photographer with a still very vibrant and strong career doing it. Over the past couple of years she has also managed to find the time to become a fucking good tattooist and open her own tattoo shop and art gallery! She has tattooed me twice now and I guarantee there will be a third.

Cindy Frey is currently hosting my photography exhibition "Along The Way", at her art gallery in Kortrijk, Belgium. It will be open until new year, so please stop by if you can.

Cindy Frey Art Gallery -Facebook

Cindy Frey -Facebook

Sam Barker Photography -Facebook

This may well be my last post before Christmas, so I wish you all the best and have a very merry one!
With love -SB x

NICK?!

A recent portrait I shot in my new garage studio with my homie Nick Williamson of Williamson films. 

Head over to the Williamson Film Tumblr to see some of his projects.

Fledglings

One of my oldest friends emails me out of the blue to say that she has a new band called Fledglings, they are playing their first ever gig back in Ipswich at the Swan Pub & could I take some photos for them? With pleasure!

Most people will remember Becky from fronting the very much loved band, Making Eyes At Elvis (formerly Charlie Brown). She's been residing in London and studying/working, there fore hasn't done any band stuff for around six years. It was an absolute pleasure to see her back behind the keys and singing her heart out once again. 

I'm sure when people will talk about Fledglings they will probably say that there are of course some similarities between this band and Beckys past venture. However this band has an undoubtedly evolved sound, and some serious balls to boot. I couldn't help but hear some Mars Volta type moments in there set, as well as a little Modest Mouse, but mostly so much captivating originality. I genuinely cant wait for their next show.

The Jager Man Can

Shot on medium format film through my beautiful Mamiya C330. Shot in Ipswich's Swan Pub, Jagermeister, fairy lights, and my homie Joe Halls looking far more serious than normal for a split second. No flash used, dark was the intention. This was on a day when Joe decided to not drink for a month. He made it about two weeks, for Joe this was a valiant effort. Some people are just born to lead the party.

The Marshes

A photo I shot of the marshland at the Holbrook Creek in April on my Mamiya C330, medium format camera. 

Ideals, Eyes Open - Music video

So earlier this year around the beginning of march, my friend and Ideals drummer, Ben Ward, asked if I might be interested in making a music video for the band. It was only a few days later talking to my best friend, Nick Williamson, that I realized Ben had approached him about the project as well. We decided to work on something together, not really knowing when it would happen, but knowing it would. 

After a lot of talking with Ben, I soon realized the band wanted something home grown, organic and relatively simple. So instead of a fancy studio in London, I arranged to shoot at a couple of locations in the bands (& mine and Nicks) home town of Ipswich.

We shot a big part of it in a friends empty, soon to be open bar/restaurant on the Ipswich docks. This currently nameless and under construction bar/restaurant was the perfect place to shoot, we transformed this huge empty space with lights, projectors and of course the band.

The other big part of the video we shot in Ipswich's renowned Swan Pub, a place where Ideals and many other bands and artists have played over the years. The bar is probably most famous for the Mumford & Sons show right before the band really took off. And also for Ipswich local singer/songwriter, Ed Sheeran, who has played here regularly over the years, and his last gig at the pub as support for Dels at the end of 2010 echos the same story as Mumford & Sons, as it was right before he REALLY took off!

So to pay homage to The Swan and it's deep roots in music, we shot in their infamous attic deep into the night. The small run down and unused room, with wooden floors as old as the building itself oozes character. Again, simply with a couple of lights and some creative sparks, we really made it into something even more special.

I shot a lot of photos over the course of the night to, as well as some sequences which Nick very cleverly incorporated into the video. I will post the photos up later on this week along with some new portraits of the band to.

I'm thrilled to have worked with a band which I'm not only a fan of, but have been friends with since school days. It's also been a great thing for me to get to work on such a good project with my best friend, Nick. This is our first project together since my skate video in 2007, let's hope its not so long until next time.

Any way, here is the finished video. Please watch it, share it and above all enjoy it. It's a great song. In my opinion one of their best.

Ideals- Eyes Open

Thanks to the following people for helping make this happen- 
Nick Williamson, Joe Halls, Callum Hewitt, Tom Barker & Hannah Maynard.


Ideals are-
Andrew Major, Ben Ward, Simon Wilson & Ben Smith.


Ideals- Facebook
Sam Barker Photography- Facebook
Williamson Film- Tumblr
The Swan- Facebook

Boys

A photo from my Mamiya C330, good old fashioned medium format film. Fuck Instagram.
Two of my favorite skateboarding amigos, Mark Kendrick (left) and Brendon Brunning (right) before going skating on a nice day in Ipswich last year. 

While You Were Sleeping

While you were sleeping, I was out in the dead of night looking at the stars.
I've not done any night photography in a fair while. This was more of a test shoot to go out and shoot at night properly another time, but I am really stoked with this one particular shot. It was the clearest night I have seen in a long time, stood in a field, nobody around for miles, so much love for the sticks.

Winter Wander

On a cold February day after a snowy night, I went for a wander along the Orwell river. I noticed the birds going crazy, diving into the water for food as a couple of boats went by so I paddled in as far as my wellie boots would allow and started snapping. The top photo is the result. one of my personal favorites I've ever shot, stoked!
The next three are some other shots from the same walk.

Fairweather Vintage

I recently hooked up with Kelly Fairweather who has just opened her very own ladies shop, "Fairweather Vintage", to shoot some photographs of her and the shop, and talk to her about this new venture...

SB- Firstly congratulations, the shop looks fantastic and you have some great pieces in here. How has your first week open been for you?

KF- I am so pleased with the first week. I have had customers of all ages and walks of life. Many people seem genuinely excited to have a vintage shop in Ipswich.

I already have a nice fanbase on Facebook and Twitter. The support seems to be growing day by day. A very positive start.

SB- What first made you decide to open your own vintage clothing shop in Ipswich?

KF-My interest in sewing began at the age of 10 with a Singer sewing machine set in a wooden table that previously belonged to my grandmother (I used to be obsessed with customising jeans and making skirts from trousers). I sewed casually throughout my school years and then went on to do a Textiles A-level at Colchester Sixth Form. From there I studied at London College of Fashion for a year before moving back to Ipswich, as the mainstream fashion industry did not appeal to me. It was during my time back in Ipswich that I fully applied myself to the art of sewing and dressmaking and learned my trade inside out while working in a clothes alteration shop.
I also worked in retail alongside school and college and collecting vintage clothes was a hobby of mine for years. Learning to sew meant that all of my loves could be culminated into my dream shop and Fairweather Vintage was born.

SB- Did you find opening the shop a very difficult task?

KF- It was difficult, but also enjoyable, a great challenge and well worth it.

The biggest obstacle was time… we basically didn’t have much, and put everything together in a couple of months. Lack of time was semi-overcome by lack of sleep!

I can liken the whole situation to a girls dream wedding - they think about every detail in their head for many years and when it comes to planning for the big day, they know exactly what they want. I had a very clear vision of my ‘big day’ and just went for it with lots of help from my talented graphic designer boyfriend, James (love and thanks to James for super support and brilliant branding skills x).

SB- Tell us what makes Fairweather Vintage unique and different to other ladies shops?

KF- Our main unique selling point is, without a doubt, the added in-house tailoring service. I can customise or tailor a garment to a customers personal specifications – a salute to the shops of days gone by, where a tailor was always on hand.
Fairweather Vintage is packed full of interesting and beautiful things to make you smile. Each item is handpicked and of great vintage quality. The shop is small and friendly, holding traditional values with a modern twist.

SB- What are you plans for the future of Fairweather Vintage?

KF- My hope is that people will love Fairweather Vintage as much as I do and continue to come back again and again to see what new gems we have in-store.

The website is currently under construction so that will be the next thing to look out for.

I also hope that Fairweather Vintage, along with other independent local business can continue to grow and succeed in Ipswich.