For more than four decades, Tina Barney has been a defining figure in contemporary photography. Born in 1945, Barney has photographed the world she knows most intimately—her own family and close friends—creating complex images that blur the boundaries between observation and direction. She is renowned for the scale and intricacy of her color photographs examining family dynamics of generational privilege in the extraordinary environments in New England and New York.
Silver Shadows brings together two distinct bodies of black and white photographs alongside the short film Family Portraits. Barney’s earliest images, made in Rhode Island in 1977, reveal an intimate approach: the fragmentary and tightly cropped prints withhold the gaze of their subjects. Instead, formal clothing and stilted posture become markers of social identity, anticipating themes that would define Barney’s practice.
Tina Barney, The Tool Shed, 2012 - Courtesy of the artist and the gallery