ENTRY DESCRIPTION
When I first met Dominican artist Hampton Rodriguez, his English was limited to just a few short sentences, but his art spoke volumes. That was twenty-five years ago. Known for his expansive murals on the sides of buildings in Portland's Alberta Arts District, Hampton agreed to sit for me while I photographed him in his studio. Portland art critic, Richard Speer, wrote of this image, "It is in the realm of portraiture that Barnett's unique vision becomes clear. His portrait of Dominican artist Hampton Rodriguez is a revelation. The subject's sad eyes and wild, side-lit hair capture the viewer's immediate attention but yield to subtler, almost painterly details: the painting Rodriguez is nonchalantly working on, the way the paint staining his jeans and shirt echoes the paint on the canvas behind him, and the uncanny sfumato as foreground grades imperceptibly into background. It's hard to tell where Rodriguez the artist ends and his art begins."

AUTHOR
Trained as a Cultural Anthropologist at the University of California at Berkeley and Los Angeles during the tumultuous 60s, author and award-winning commercial and fine art photographer Frank Barnett has had a rich, multi-faceted career. From heading marketing and public relations for the University of California Press to founding a carriage-trade bookstore and three fine art galleries, he also owned an advertising and public relations firm for 25 years. His specialty, photojournalism, has taken him from the center of the arena at the famous Pendleton Round-up to the infamous Louisiana State Penitentiary, home of the Angola Prison Rodeo.

For the past 50 years, he has sought access to edgy, outsider subjects from the Berlin Wall to the bedside of his terminally-ill wife, aging nursing home residents, and prison inmates for whom life beyond confinement would never be realized.


His fine art photography includes masterfully executed photomontages. In 1988 Frank co-authored Working Together: Entrepreneurial Couples, published by Ten Speed Press and cemented his reputation as a thought leader in the family entrepreneurial arena. At 80, he is still active as a fine art and commercial photographer. He resides in Salem, Oregon, with his wife and creative collaborator, Martha Solomon. Together, the couple serves museums, corporations, and individuals with award-winning photography, publications, and curated installations. Their next exhibit, "The All American Toy Company – An Oregon Original," is scheduled to open at the Oregon Historical Society Museum in Portland, Oregon, in September, 2019.

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