"Barnard's images speak of the fleeting nature of political power and the often makeshift working environments that lurk beyond the gaze of the TV camera or the official portrait.
[7] In the group exhibition Theatres of War, curated by Mark Power in 2007, "Barnard documented the tragically tacky 'care packages' dispatched to American troops stationed abroad".
Peter Conrad, reviewing the exhibition in The Guardian explained Barnard's photographs by asking "how can soldiers who ask their families to send them Beanie Babies and whoopee cushions hope to understand the gangs of Islamic insurgents they are fighting?".
[8] Barnard's "complicated and intriguing multimedia project"[9] Virtual Iraq "examines the use of interactive media by the US army to recruit, train and treat military personnel before and after they embark on a tour of duty to the Middle East.
"[9] Gordon MacDonald, reviewing Virtual Iraq in Photoworks Biannual,[n 1] said "Barnard’s project does not aim to direct you towards the ridiculous aspects of Flatworld or to point out the serious moral questions its existence raises.