Barbara Peacock, Butchering Day, 2024/25, Archival pigment print, 16×20 inches

If we are ‘dust to dust’ then photographs are to art what words are to poetry. With this project, ‘Searching for the Same Light’ I search for the beauty in the ordinary, in daily life and rituals, in quiet human moments. The extraordinary within the ordinary. After moving to Maine, I developed a new interest in farming and rural life. I fell in love with both the people and the landscape. It began to feel like my true home.

The title was inspired by a line in a poem by Warsan Shire, The Unbearable Weight of Staying. The line reads: ‘growing to and from one another, searching for the same light.’ I found that deeply moving. It reflects the idea that, regardless of our ideologies, politics, or beliefs, we’re all ultimately searching for the same things — love, family, health, and a good life — with a bit of light shining on us. I felt the metaphor perfectly captured the essence of what I’m trying to convey with this project.” - B.P.

Barbara Peacock is an assignment photographer and director living in Portland, Maine. She studied fine arts at Boston University School of Fine Arts, and photography and filmmaking at The School for the Museum of Fine Arts / Tufts University. She began as a street photographer and gradually became an assignment lifestyle photographer and director. Her commercial clients include Disney, Nickelodeon, French's, Arm & Hammer, Stride Rite, Merck Pharmaceutical, Tylenol, Wells Fargo & Toyota. Editorial clients include People, Newsweek, Family Circle, Oprah, Family Fun. In 2016 she published Hometown –1982-2015 - A thirty-year photographic project of the small town where she grew up and continued to live as an adult. Published by BazanPhotos Publishing, Brooklyn NY. Printed in the USA by Puritan Capital. In 2023 she published American Bedroom - reflections on the nature of life. It is a cultural and anthropological study of Americans in their private dwelling; the bedroom. It encompasses the entire United States and took seven years to complete. Published by Kehrer-Verlag & Printed in Heidelberg, Germany. Barbara has won the Getty Editorial Grant, the Women Photograph/Getty Grant, three LensCulture Awards, four Top 50 Critical Mass Awards, and was named one of the Top 100 Photographers in America 2020. She was recently awarded the Arthur Gribin Legacy Award from The Gribin Museum. She founded a non-profit organization ‘The Nightingale Project’ that teaches art and photography to disadvantaged children and with learning disabilities. She teaches locally as well as having traveled to Haiti, Cambodia and New York.