The DirtyWater Gent: The Photography of Tina Barney

There's something beautifully authentic in the candid portraits of Tina Barney. I love the fact that she allows her audience tiny glimpses into her subject's world. In particular, her Theatre of Manners collection, which captures a fleeting glimpse of a Northeastern WASPy lifestyle that has, in many ways, changed beyond recognition today.

My favourite picture below is 1982's Sunday New York Times. There's something about the paper's various sections spread out and shared amongst the multi-generational group, the green bottles of beer on the table and the almost full ashtray that speak to a world we'll never see again but I would have loved to be a part of...

From the bio page on her website:

Tina Barney was born in 1945 in New York. Since 1975, she has been producing large-scale photographs of family and friends. Her meticulous tableaux chronicle the complexity of interpersonal relationships. These lush color prints have been exhibited and collected by major institutions around the world. Among her exhibitions are a mid-career exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1991 and the Whitney Biennial, 1987. More recently, her work has been shown at the New York State Theatre in New York, in 2011; The Barbican Art Centre, London; Museum Folkwang in Essen, Museum der Art Moderne, Salzburg, and others. In October, her work will be included in a major portraiture exhibition at The National Gallery, London. Barney was the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 1991, and the 2010 Lucie Award for Achievement in Portraiture. Her monographs include Tina Barney: Theatre of Manners, The Europeans, and her new book from Steidl, Players. She lives in New York and Rhode Island.