Tina Barney- Social Studies
The first in The Sundance Channel films on photography this month was Tina Barney: Social Studies. Barney sets up these narratives with affluent American and European subjects capitalizing on the culture that surrounded her since childhood. One of the key statements she made in the film was that she began to make images because she felt or thought that “the American family was going to become extinct.”
This made me think about my own family. Since the passing of both of my paternal grandparents, I see the structure of my extended family slowly moving apart. We don’t all meet up at my grandparents house as we did every Sunday for dinner. Holidays have become just another day. Maybe it’s because we are getting older and we all have different lifestyles. I also realized I have never taken any pictures of my parents since becoming a photographer. I need to make more portraits.