Biography
Tina Barney, born in 1945 in New York, is an acclaimed American photographer known for her large-format color portraits that reveal the private lives of affluent East Coast families. A member of the Lehman family, her privileged upbringing deeply informs her artistic lens. She began her photography career in the 1970s while volunteering at the Museum of Modern Art and later studied under leading photographers like Frederick Sommer and Duane Michals.
Her work blends careful staging with natural domestic scenes, using a 4x5 view camera to explore family rituals, generational dynamics, and social performance. Notable series include The Europeans (1996–2004), which documents contemporary aristocracy across Europe, and Players (2011), centered on social behavior and identity. Her photographs are held in major museum collections including MoMA, the Whitney Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Barney has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1991 and the Lucie Award for Portraiture in 2010. In 2024, the Jeu de Paume in Paris presented a major retrospective, Family Ties, showcasing 55 works across four decades. She continues to live and work between New York and Rhode Island, focusing on themes of family, memory, and social structure.
Nationality