Tina Barney
There was a film on sundance tonight about Tina Barney, a photographer that I had heretofore never heard of.
Tina Barney is from a very high class family in New York and she made her mark on the world by photographing her family and friends. The fascinating thing about her, I think, is the fact that she is perfectly normal.
Encountering this "day in the life" portrait of a woman from a place in society that I have unconsciously always wondered about was refreshing. Most people only get to see the stereotypes and scandals of these people. She is this rich powerful creative individual and yet I was fascinated by her normalness.
The movie was about her as an artist. The context of her life was secondary. They did not try to create any sort of spectacle and it made for a really engaging experiance. This woman has no plastic surgery and wears very little make-up. She takes exquisite pictures of people that really focus on thier person and not thier rank. She reminded me a little bit of my hippie mom.
She talks about hypocracy at one point, which is the moment, I think when she really won me over. Some periodical was doing an article about poverty and they asked her to photograph and poor family. She felt that it would have been hypocritical and patronizing for her to do this. And it was true. There is something sort of unbearable about the concept of the priviledged know-it-all fine artist going out to photograph the "real" world.
Towards the end of the film, we see her going through the printing and showing process for her art and she is talking over the film about her fears that one day she is going to stop pushing herself. That one day she will get her proofs back and ther wouldn't be anything good in the bunch.
I liked hearing that from an established artist. It makes me feel better about my own self-doubt. We all have it, and in an artist it can be beneficial. Its was motivates us to learn and grow. What moves us forward.
Tina Barney is from a very high class family in New York and she made her mark on the world by photographing her family and friends. The fascinating thing about her, I think, is the fact that she is perfectly normal.
Encountering this "day in the life" portrait of a woman from a place in society that I have unconsciously always wondered about was refreshing. Most people only get to see the stereotypes and scandals of these people. She is this rich powerful creative individual and yet I was fascinated by her normalness.
The movie was about her as an artist. The context of her life was secondary. They did not try to create any sort of spectacle and it made for a really engaging experiance. This woman has no plastic surgery and wears very little make-up. She takes exquisite pictures of people that really focus on thier person and not thier rank. She reminded me a little bit of my hippie mom.
She talks about hypocracy at one point, which is the moment, I think when she really won me over. Some periodical was doing an article about poverty and they asked her to photograph and poor family. She felt that it would have been hypocritical and patronizing for her to do this. And it was true. There is something sort of unbearable about the concept of the priviledged know-it-all fine artist going out to photograph the "real" world.
Towards the end of the film, we see her going through the printing and showing process for her art and she is talking over the film about her fears that one day she is going to stop pushing herself. That one day she will get her proofs back and ther wouldn't be anything good in the bunch.
I liked hearing that from an established artist. It makes me feel better about my own self-doubt. We all have it, and in an artist it can be beneficial. Its was motivates us to learn and grow. What moves us forward.