Tina BarneyTina Barney

1945-

Brief BiographyBrief Biography

Born 1945 in New York City

Grew up in a well-to-do upper-middle class family

Pretty unafflicted childhood

Started taking snapshots of her family in mid-70s as a housewife

These were done with 35mm black and white

Produced spontaneous-looking images of various moments in the lives of her family and friends.

Began using large format in early 1980s- one of the first photographers of this format.

Her photographs are known for their intimacy, their immediacy, their well-crafted composition- rich in detail and color. Their lack of emotion (“humanity”), and their large scale.

“How people treat each other is more interesting than the class they come from.”

Sunday New York Times, 1982

Jill and Polly in Bathroom, 1987

The Bridesmaid, 1994

Jim and Phil at Graduation, 1985

“When people say that there is a distance, a stiffness in my photographs, that the people look like they do not connect, my answer is, that this is the best we can do. This inability to show physical affection is in our heritage.”

Marina’s Room, 1987

Marina and Peter, 1997

“The human gesture is one of the great loves of my life.”

Shift in photographic style over 20+ years:

Brings camera closer to her subjects.

Subjects’ interaction with the camera:

- new awareness of camera

- confrontation of camera

Compare:

Mother and Son, 1990

The French Family, 2002

The Dining Hall, 2001

The Tapestry, 1996

Graham Cracker Box, 1984

"How can one photograph possibly explain a relationship?"

Father and Sons, 1996

The Daughters, 2003

Jill and I, 1993

Julianne Moore and Family, 1999

The Yellow Wall, 1996

The Dirndls, 2004

“Is this fear of the inevitability of that final, drastic loneliness what instigated this obsessively frantic insistence to mark every living inch of life so as to not miss one detail. And with a stubbornness that I was born with, I demand that you take notice, and not look over, and never forget.”

(End)