Barbara crane: private views.(Brief article)(Book review)

APERTURE/2009/128 PP./$40.00 (HB)

In the 1980s Barbara Crane attended the many varied and vibrant summer festivals in the Chicago area. Equipped with a Speed Graphic Camera and a lot of Polaroid film she created images that reveal the sweat, the energy, and the charisma of the crowd. A crowd is its own entity, filled with individuality plastered across t-shirts, hairstyles, and items carried by festival-goers. Calling on our own experiences with festivals the images pulse with music, traffic, private conversations being whispered close in your ear. We see hands grabbing body parts, trying to stay connected or reaffirm an attachment. We feel the heat of the environment and the bodies all around us.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

These one-of-a-kind images captured on 4x5 Polaroid are as unique as the experience of the festival: fleeting moments remembered as wonderful experiences that keep us coming back. In most of the images Crane has cropped out her subjects' faces, removing their identity so the viewer can focus on the moments not originally intended to be shared with onlookers. We all want a hand to hold onto, we all want music to listen to, we are all reaching out, wanting to feel the connection of the crowd. All these images speak to our desire to be unique while in their entirety remind us of our similarities. One hundred full-color images fill the pages, each evoking a sense of intimacy that makes us feel as though we have a "private view."

The book serves as a catalog to accompany the exhibition of the work at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, February 14 March 10, 2009. There will also be a retrospective of Crane's work at the Chicago Cultural Center, October 3, 2009 January 10, 2010.

JAIMEE S. LINDVAY is an MFA candidate at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York.

Print Get the Mag Weekly Updates