Barbara Beirne works independently on personal projects.  Subjects are selected that present social justice issues that are of particular interest to her.Two series, “Women of Southern Appalachia” and “Becoming American: Teenagers and Immigration,” include interviews and portraits of her subjects. Among her other projects are photographs of children living in a family homeless shelter, portraits of Kosovar refugees, a documentation of the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, and Sunday services at a church in Morristown, NJ. She has also worked in Belfast, Northern Ireland, India, Nepal, Mexico, Iceland and Ecuador. Ms. Beirne’s photographs have been widely exhibited in museums and galleries. Two nation-wide tours of her work have been sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES).

Her work is included in the permanent collections of the following museums and libraries: Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ, The Archives Center at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, The Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, VA, Noyes Museum of Art, Oceanville, NJ, Newark Public Library, Newark, NJ, and The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, Cambridge, MA. Her photographs are also in many private collections.

Ms. Beirne studied political science at Marymount College and holds a master of fine arts degree in photography from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY. She has taught photography at County College of Morris, Randolph, New Jersey and is the author and photographer of five children’s books.