March 26, 2014

To whom it may concern:

In the late 1990's, while I was Curator of Prints and Photographs at the Museum of the City of New York, I organized a popular and well-received exhibition on the photographs of Jacob Riis and five contemporary photographers documenting "how the other half lives". Martin Barrat was one of the photographers in the show, along with Mary Ellen Mark and other well-known artists participating in the exhibition. Due to the success of the exhibition, the show traveled to Denmark's, Nationalmuseet in Copenhagen. Martine's photographs are important works that illuminate lives in late 20 century New York at a time when few other photographers were documenting outer Manhattan neighborhoods. Martine has a marvelous eye, and I am pleased that we were able to accept her work in the Museum of the City of New York's permanent collections for future generations. I fondly recall her seemingly spontaneous, yet vibrant and telling photographs of Harlem youth.

They are simply beautiful photographs.