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2023
Image credits:christhebarker
The author of the Sgt. Pepper’s-inspired images continued: “Then they just kept on going and going and so I had to keep updating it until it had gathered so much momentum it felt like it was all everyone was talking about that year. I never intended to do it again as it had been so all-encompassing but I got talked into it. And then again the next year and the next. So now I’ve resigned myself to doing it every year. I don’t know how I’ve become this bizarre custodian of international grief and memoriam but people seem to like it and it doesn’t do anyone any harm!”
Chris also told us more about how he keeps track of all the people passing away: “Because people pay such close attention to it, I have started keeping a list over the course of the year. I used to just cram it into the final month but now I start thinking about the arrangement around September/October time.”
“I don’t find research particularly taxing as I am bombarded with messages and on social media every time anyone famous dies. People take it quite seriously!”
2022
We also asked Barker about the creative process behind putting a montage of all the people in one image together. We learned that: “The part I find most rewarding is the composition. Arranging characters in relevant clusters. I always try to sneak a few little narratives in there and I enjoy it when people notice them without me pointing them out.”
2021
Lastly, we were wondering if Barker plans to continue creating the same montages every year now. He said: “I used to say ‘this is the last time I’m ever doing this’ the first few years. Then I got used to it. But this year did feel rather overwhelming and is the closest I’ve come to saying never again in a while. I think it was because I started early. I’d had the idea of what to do with Sinead O’Connor ripping up the photograph way back in the summer and I’d been patiently sitting on the idea since then. I think that made me go early. This was the biggest count I’ve done as well. That can’t help but make you a bit depressed. But like I say, people like it. It’s like a cross between the in memoriam section at the Oscars and Where’s Wally (or Waldo if you’re American).
I may well stop doing it when I reach ten. I mean, I can’t go on forever, can I?”
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