Kristina Barker

Artist Statement

Guided by her introspective sense of place and belonging, Kristina examines themes around human consciousness reflected in nature. This exploration is heavily shaped by carrying grief, surviving trauma, and connecting the state of dreaming as a critical part of experiencing human life. Her work is an evolution of her background in photojournalism and documentary storytelling. She investigates the idea of where our physical and non-physical worlds intertwine, drawing on memory and confronting ambiguous loss.

Artist Bio
Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Kristina studied photojournalism at San Francisco State but followed her love for rural communities, living and working in the Black Hills of western South Dakota for over a decade. She’s documented news and communities for The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Mother Jones, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Harper’s and many others. Kristina is currently a freelance photojournalist and artist living in Portland, Ore. with her cat Dylan. Her works focuses on our natural world, Alzheimer's, the climate crisis, and grief.

A bat fell into the river, 2025