American photographer Barbara Crane (1928-2019) did it all. From glimmering windowpanes in Chicago, to off-the-cuff, anonymous shots of attendees at Alabama’s Maricopa County Fair, her oeuvre stands out for its plurality of styles, techniques and genres. Crane received a twin-lens Kodak Reflex as a birthday gift from her parents in 1947, although Centre Pompidou’s show picks up in 1964. The first thing attendees encounter is a series of close-up portraits of people exiting a department store. But all is not what it seems: the images are overlaid with abstract motifs, and the result is confronting, with double exposures creating ghost images of the city’s neon signs on top of zoomed-in faces. It’s a good choice for an opening act, setting the stage for an interplay between documentarianism and experimentation.
Later, Crane’s comparably conventional 1970s street photography is followed by the mosaic-like Whole Roll (1974-1978), an experimental darkroom project, and Baxter Labs (1974-1976), which plays with abstract graphic forms and optical effects. Then there’s the Loop series. Between 1976 – 1978, with her heavy 5×7 inch view camera installed on a golf bag with big wheels, Crane scrutinised an historic Chicago neighbourhood. She paid attention to the ways in which the light interacted with the façades.
The 1980s saw Crane produce quick-fire images of unknown individuals, culminating in Private Views. One such picture shows a woman emerging from a telephone box, its metal frame – and her face – seemingly caught in the flash. “I wanted to get rid of everything but the one thing I want to show, that one gesture that says a lot. I found myself inching closer, physically to my subjects. When I first started shooting, I used to be about ten feet from a person. In the end I was more like ten inches.” This show is testament to the power of innovation and champions a major 20th century name whose work was in constant reinvention.
Words: Frances Johnson
Centre Pompidou, Paris | Until 6 January
Image Credits:
1. Loop Series, 1976-1978. épreuve gélatino-argentique. 13 x 18cm. Collection Phaedra Harbraugh and Boris Sepesi © Barbara B. Crane Trust. © Centre Pompidou, Joseph Banderet.
2. Private Views, 1980-1984. Polaroid Polacolor type 59, 10.6 x 13.2cm. Collection Barbara B. Crane Trust. © Barbara B. Crane Trust © Centre Pompidou, Audrey Laurans.
3. Loop Series, 1976-1978 Gelatin silver print 13 x 18 cm Collection Musée national d’art moderne – Centre de création industrielle, Centre Pompidou, Paris © Barbara B. Crane Trust © Centre Pompidou, Joseph Banderet
