Tina BarneyThe Beginning

Over the course of her 40-year career, the celebrated American photographer Tina Barney has shed light on the inner lives of her subjects, observing the generational repetition of family traditions and rituals in the domestic setting. In the summer of 2020, at the height of Covid and the quarantine restrictions, Tina Barney began to sort through her archives, which contained hundreds of 35mm negatives taken between 1976 and 1980. The discovery of these long-forgotten images allowed her to rediscover some of her most intimate memories as a young artist: “The photographs in this book are like X-rays of my mind and thoughts during the summers I spent with my family and friends on the East Coast and in Sun Valley, Idaho”.

Reviewing her work from previous decades, Barney found herself pondering who and where she was at the time, as well as why and how she approached certain subjects. What inspired her to capture these moments? The Beginning encompasses Barney’s nostalgic exploration of her early work in photography, and also reflects an examination of this formative period through a critical prism.