Ottawa’s Annette Barr connects images, audio to bring people together

Annette Barr is a photographer by trade and subsequently, in this technological era, deals a lot with cameras, computers, printers and a variety of other equipment that some people wouldn’t know how to use if it bit them.

But she knows that the substance of her work is really in people, and that’s led to her most ambitious project yet.

“The Neighbor Project,” a unique interactive display of her considerable photographic talents, is on display through February at the CatsEye Wine Bar at 724 La Salle St. in Ottawa and features not only the faces of 50 prominent people around her hometown but also their voices, with some interesting reactions.

“Those not in the project find it interesting,” Barr said with a laugh, “and a few of those who said no when I asked them to be in it are kicking themselves that they didn’t do it.

“The people that participated are quite brave, really. I gave them an idea what I wanted to do, but they knew I was building the plane as I flew it … and they were fine with it. Their reaction has been quite positive. When we were done, they’d say, ‘Oh, that was fun,’ or “Wow, I didn’t think about that’ … I think the audio adds a feel of familiarity, of intimacy. It helps me know these people better.”

Combining the sentiment that people are friendlier when meeting in person, her random encounters with friends while walking her dog, Lou, and a childhood love of Sesame Street – with her mother, Denice, often singing the song, “Who are the people in your neighborhood?” – she came up with a plan.

Barr would augment a display of her preferred black-and-white images against a white background for portraits with an audio segment, available through a QR code patrons can scan with their phones and listen though provided headphones.

But at her studio at 215 W. Main St. in Ottawa, she combined the two with a very interesting twist.

Borrowing an angle from Marcel Proust in “Vanity Fair” and James Lipton of “Inside The Actor’s Studio,” Barr came up with a list of 22 questions to elicit reactions from her subjects and photographs them as they answer.

The answers – from 26 women, 24 men ranging in age from 18 to 84 – are recorded so they can be matched up with the most distinct reaction for her display.

Those questions included, “What is your idea of perfect happiness?”, “What is your greatest fear?”, “When and where you you the happiest?”, “What is your greatest regret?” and “What is your most treasured possession?”

Barr then solicited Ryan Witherspoon to assist her with the audio, then began asking people she knew to come in for a sitting, photographing them as they answered questions. She then went through her photos for her favorite reaction, then matched it to the question and answer.

“I asked my mom to come in to sit to kind of try it out,” she said. “In the picture I chose, she had a cute look on her face like maybe she was talking about her grandkids or something, but it was actually, ‘What is your favorite curse word?’ She said it and started giggling.

“The questions kind of take you on a wave. As I asked them, their reactions came through, and some people found themselves getting emotional. It doesn’t always match up to what you think it will be. I really got some interesting answers and from people I’ve known for years, I felt like I knew them differently. You get below the surface.”

Barr credits Amanda Weygand Zehr, her first assistant at Annette Barr Photography and owner of Open Space Art Gallery, for helping her climb out of her comfort zone to get the project off the ground, briefly at her gallery last September.

Barr would like to do another, perhaps one with just children or preteens, maybe just senior citizens. She’s even been approached to do the same for noteworthy citizens from Princeton.

“I’m like, ‘Slow your roll,’” Barr chuckled. “This was very time-consuming and rather costly. I’ve had them printed into a book (available at her studio and The Prairie Fox bookstore, 719 La Salle St., Ottawa).”