Tina Barney

"Tina Barney is best known for her ongoing documentation of the lifestyles and relationships of her family and close friends, many of whom belong to the social elite of New York and New England. Barney’s style is part candid, part tableau; her subject matter raises in equal measure issues of privilege and the interaction of family members. While striving for the candidness of a snapshot, Barney became one of the first artists working in the 1980s to explore a “directorial” mode of making pictures. Her decision to direct her subjects stems in part from her choice to sacrifice the nimble freedom of a 35 millimeter camera (with which she began her photographic career) for the large format camera’s ability to deliver a more detailed rendering of the trappings of wealth so integral to depicting her subjects and their environment. Her direction ranges from posing her subjects to simply asking them to repeat a spontaneous gesture, and her style of working often includes careful lighting and the help of an assistant. The effect is an unexpectedly intimate access to her subjects." (Museum of Contemporary Art)

Website of Supporting Museum: http://www.mocp.org/collections/permanent
/barney_tina.php

I have looked to Barney's work for inspiration in past projects. Although her style and technique is much different than what I am doing with my current work, her basic thoughts and ideas that fuel her work are somewhat similar.
Her photographs capture that which outsiders cannot see. Her pictures let us in to people's live that we would not, under normal circumstances, be able to view. While some of her pictures are portraits, where the subject locks eyes with viewer, others are much more intimate. These more intimate, environmental photographs capture families in their personal, private moments.
It seems that people never tire of being bale to look into other people's lives. We get a glimpse of what life is like for someone else. The viewer can relate to the subjects and their environments .
The photographs study what is familiar to all people. Even though the viewer does not have any emotional or personal relationships with the subjects in the photographs, the viewer is still captured by the work.. There is still interest in the pictures, even though the viewer is not in any way related to the people.
I am usually drawn to photographs of family. Such as Sally Mann, Diane Arbus, Callahan, and Barney. I am drawn to these artists because their work is personal. I also tend to focus on my family in my work. I feel a deeper connection to my work when I am working with family imagery. This work has been criticized before. The question of why would anyone be interested in looking at pictures of your family. It doesn't mean anything to them. I disagree. I feel that we can all relate to family imagery. We all have a natural interest and curiosity in the lives's of others.