James H. Barker came to Alaska in 1974 after studying at the Art Center School in Los Angeles, California. He spent several years free lancing and as a commercial and scientific photographer in Washington State and the San Francisco Bay area. Mr. Barker was curator of photography for Crossroads Alaska, 1994, the Smithsonian Institute’s major exhibition on Siberian and Alaskan Natives. He spent the 1996 and 1998 seasons at U.S. stations in Antarctica and outlying field camps taking photographs for a feature article on scientists conducting climate change studies. Mr. Barker has also spent time as a visiting instructor of photography at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

Mr. Barker has exhibited work at the Field Museum in Chicago, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American Indian in New York, the Museum of Arts and Sciences in San Francisco, and in major museums in Alaska. He received 2nd place in the Time/Life Magazine Photo Essay competition in 1973 and was a Time/Life Eisenstaedt Awards finalist in 1998.