RE: Artist Martine Barrat

March 2014

To Whom it May Concern:

I have had the pleasure of working with and highly recommend Ms. Martine Barrat, an accomplished photographer, videographer and artist based in New York City. I first met Martine more than a decade ago, through my work at the French Embassy's Cultural Services in New York, where I served as the national coordinator for visual arts programs. In that capacity, I promoted her successful exhibitions in France and the United States to general audiences and her work to visiting artists, curators and collectors. Today I work at New York's Latino and Latin American art museum, El Museo del Barrio, as Foundation and Board Relations Manager. Martine's work is equally relevant in this context, thanks to her extensive documentation through portraiture of New York City's Latino and African-American communities. Martine's portraits are very moving and her documentation of the cultural lives of residents of Harlem and New York City more broadly constitutes an important archive of our history and heritage. I would recommend her work to anyone, and especially those interested in street photography, portraiture, and documentation of our urban landscape. I have had the opportunity to visit Martine's home and archives, where she keeps negatives, notebooks and other records of her decades of photography and video work. It is an impressive collection, with records spanning her long career.

Please contact me if I can provide any further support be of any

assistance. I can be reached at mdansie@elmuseo.org or 212 660-7195.