Tina Barney is an American artist and photographer best known for her large scale, colour portraits of her family and close friends. Her family are wealthy and she took advantage of this to take her most famous series of images. She told her family and close friends she was going to take some portraits of them. As they were getting ready she began taking photos of them which was deceitfully the main body of her work instead of the actual shots she claimed to take. Her work aims to show the relationship between family members without them knowing that its an actual portrait. By doing this she sees the actual personalities and shared characters of her family and close friends rather than taking a staged family portrait which ignores relationship. Barneys work is now in collections in The museum of film and photography in Rochester New York, the museum of modern art and the museum of fine arts in Houston Texas. Barney wanted to take photos of the contrast between getting ready for a family portrait and the portrait it's self. Although she didn't take the actual portrait she documented the getting ready stages which were much more candid. She did this to show the difference between the relationships depicted through candid shots in contrast to straight faced portraits.
This photo is taken as the family is getting ready for a family portrait photo shoot. Tina wanted to show how the family actually acts around each other before the staged and awkward photograph they were about to have. Although the photo is technically a candid shot as they thought they were waiting for an actual family photo, it is seemingly slightly set up .This is evident in the colour composition, for example how the yellow of the wall matches with the yellow in the woman's dress on the left of the slouched boy. The way the boy is looking over at the camera suggests he realised the photo was being taken however it didn't effect the oblivious look on his face which adds to the naturalistic aesthetic. The photo portrays their relationship as he is leaning towards the woman and they both look comfortable. The way the boy is dressed suggests the relaxed positioning of the shoot, as his top button is undone and the cuffs of his sleeves are loose also. Although they aren't obviously smiling it still shows the more affectionate side of family portraiture and it allows the viewer to see individual relationships as well as their bond together rather than a stiff posed family photo which is what the people within the photographs thought they were posing for. The art of deception allows for much more realistic and meaningful family photos.
My responses...
These responses are stemming from Tina Barneys work however it's the side Barney didn't show. Barney's work looked at the preparation for a photo like the ones below, and how the photographs of spontaneous smiles and conversations are much more beautiful than the stern photograph they would have been getting ready for.
I chose to do this as I wanted to show the harsh difference between candid photographs of the family and these poker face,haunting images that try to depict the family ,but, due to the lack of photographic experience in the 1800's show an uncomfortable and statuesque representation of family portraits.
I also wanted to portray the new technologies we have in more modern circumstances. To do this I took photographs of the straight, gaunt faces and then took photos of them waiting for the photograph to be taken similar to Barney's work of them getting ready or the photograph.
For my responses I wanted to develop from my initial shots of the old fashion family portraits. To do this I chose to use my sister, her husband and their baby, and then a group of all the boys in my family. The element of the Christmas tree suggests that it is some kind of family occasion and a time when all the family comes together, however the poses that are shown in the statuesque shots are the opposition of a 'happy family'. I then did the contrast of the old fashion stances and poker face poses, with them getting ready for the photo, talking to each other or laughing. This emphasises the difference between family portraiture 100 years ago and how portraiture has developed and improved over the years to what family portraiture is now, which is often very candid and spontaneous. I chose to edit these photos in black and white to replicate the old fashioned way photos would have been produced due to the lack of colour printing. Furthermore, it shows the contrast and development of portrait photography over the years to the 'through the doorway' shots which are in colour.
In the days when photographic equipment was limited and photographing the family was a luxury not a popular affair the photos they did have would often be stored away in the 'family album' and only updated every couple of years. They also would have photos of the family home and often with the family standing outside it, almost as a way of pride to show that they had achieved something and the money to afford the luxury of a family home. These photos often occurred with the man standing taller than his wife and children, again to illustrate a sense of power, pride and authority of his family.
I then developed this idea further by using my sisters front door and having her and her son standing in front of it to replicate how the families in the 1800's would proudly stand in front of their houses to display their wealth. I edited these in black and white to make them have the same old effect of the photos took in those days. I chose to focus on the mother and her son as I wanted to show how in the 18th century the richest families would pose in front of their houses to display their luxuries, however I also wanted to depict the controversial side to that. Whereby, in the 18th century it would usually be the man standing outside the family home as he would have been the breadwinner, but I chose to photograph the mother outside with her son, to show the modernised take on these photos. In that the mother is often seen as stronger as she nurtures the family and continues it's growth. This is displayed within these photographs by taking the old fashioned techniques of using black and white and the statue like positioning but with a modernised view of the family.
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