Tina Barney

American, 1945

Barney was born in 1945 in New York. Since 1975 she has been producing large-scale photographs of family and friends. Her meticulous tableaux chronicles the complexity of interpersonal relationships, and her lush color prints have been exhibited and collected by major institutions around the world. Notable showcases include a mid-career exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Whitney Biennial, 1987. Barney was the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 1991, and the 2010 Lucie Award for Achievement in Portraiture. More recently her work has been shown at venues including the New York State Theatre; The Barbican Art Centre, London; Haus der Kunst, Munich; and Museum der Art Moderne, Salzburg, Austria. Her monographs include Tina Barney: Theatre of Manners, The Europeans, and her newest book from Steidl, Players. In addition, she is the subject of Social Studies, a full-length film directed by the acclaimed artist and commercial director Jaci Judelson.

Barney’s work is immediately recognizable for a certain palette, and for the genuine and unforced interplay among her characters. In her series Small Towns, Barney directs her discriminating eye to document elements of American life that are becoming scarce. Behind the malls and interstate highways that now typify the American landscape still lie small towns, occupied with their events, community projects, pageants, parades, re-enactments and fairs.

Photo by Michael Halsband