FLOCC Studio’s entrance sits beside tall pencil pointed trees just off the bustling West Davis Street. Within the walls are several local creatives that take over the space ranging in age and art mediums.
Photo by Victoria Hernandez.
One of those creatives is Kent Barker, an Oak Cliff-based photographer with decades of experience in advertising and portrait photography. Within the last few years, he’s delved back into dance as his photography subject, a piece of his past that he never expected to reconnect with again.
“I’ve been a photographer all my life so a long time. It’s the only thing I’ve ever done,” he said.
For his latest project, Kent is pursuing a series of “50 Over 50,” photographing 50 women of the Dallas area over the age of 50 years old.
He was inspired by California-based photographer Dina Mande who embarked on a project capturing 40 women over 40.
“She kind of showed me the ropes of how to do it, and then I bumped it up to 50 over 50 being my age. I had to get it closer to my tribe,” Kent said.
He started the search for portrait subjects in January and is finally nearing the end of photo sessions this fall. For the first time, Kent said he used Facebook to run advertisements and had great success with women answering the ads.
He said many of the portrait subjects already knew him and his work went for the opportunity because of the deal, a $850 value for only $495.
“Many people came over, people that I’d worked with over decades, like some of these people, my God, I hadn’t heard from them in like 30 years,” he said. “But they saw this thing and reached out.”
Through the 50-Over-50 Portrait Experience, women have the opportunity to receive a wardrobe and styling consultation, professional hair and makeup, an in-person ordering session to select photos for purchase which includes fine-art, matted portrait of their choice and an invitation to the upcoming portrait exhibit.
The first subject of his series happened to own the gallery called Art on Main, which is located in East Dallas. After her session, she reached out about a week later suggesting her space for his planned showing of the series.
The opening of the show is set for December 6 at that location, so the time is ticking here, Kent said.
“That is going to be fun, to have all these people together in one place. And I think they are excited about it,” he said.
His primary team for the project is made up of assistant Luke McDonald and Jeanna Doyle, a hair and makeup artist.
“Jeanna’s done the lion’s share of the work, and I’m deeply indebted to her for it,” he said. “‘Cause it’s a lot of work, for sure.”
Last Thursday’s subject of the half day session was Briggs Freeman realtor Jeannie Nethery. She brought in 18 clothing items to peruse for styling, along with pairs of nude pointed kitten heels and gold jewelry including pieces from Ireland and Italy.
Photo by Victoria Hernandez.
Kent, Jeanna and Jeannie surrounded the rack as they discussed the options to start the session, with Kent joking that ‘he cannot work this’ in an accent. They reference different pieces as something tight and full length, something great for a business look. Then it was off to the chair for Jeanna to work her magic.
Photo by Victoria Hernandez.
Photo by Victoria Hernandez.
Kent and Luke continued to place lighting throughout the set, bringing in back lights and repositioning of the big halo light to perfect Jeannie’s glow.
Sometimes the women pose with props, but Kent said that he prioritizes a simple set with really pretty lighting in more of an editorial style, like the photos of Vanity Fair.
Throughout these sessions, Kent talks with the subjects to understand why they chose to pursue a portrait, learning about their career background and life story. He also has them write a paragraph about themselves or aspects of aging to pair with the selected portrait.
“It’s just been interesting that it has kind of hit this chord with these women,” he said. “And I think many of them, they’ve raised a family. They’ve kind of been through a lot of things and so they’re at a point in their life where they’re kind of like ‘I’ve taken care of everybody else, you know? And I just want to do this for me.’”
Kent said that through this process they have been able to give these women something really special, helping them to feel seen and that he loves having that opportunity.
