The Jeu de Paume in Paris presents the largest European retrospective of New York photographer Tina Barney. Through 55 prints, the American elite of the 80s and 90s is seen from the inside, between cocktail parties and family reunions.

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"> Text by LAURE AMBROISE</div></div></div>

Formerly known as the Mus&eacute;e des &Eacute;coles &eacute;trang&egrave;res contemporaines, the Jeu de Paume in <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/travel/the-best-coffee-shops-in-paris" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Paris</a> has always celebrated <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/art/coco-dalle-ore-interview-women-artists" target="_blank" rel="noopener">women artists</a>. In 1937, it presented the exhibition "Les femmes artistes d'Europe", with 550 works by Marie Laurencin and Tamara de Lempicka . Today, it pays tribute to Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman with the exhibition "Travelling", and offers a retrospective of the artist Tina Barney , entitled "Tina Barney, Family Ties" and on view until January 19, 2025. Born in 1945, Tina Isles, married to Barney, was the embodiment of the American dream. Since the age of 25, in the late 1970s, she has devoted herself to photographing the people closest to her, paying particular attention to family ties, Upper East Side dress codes, WASP lifestyles, elegant interior decoration, vacations between Newport and Aspen... Tina honed her skills at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts and Humanities in Idaho, where she lived for about ten years with her husband and two children. Boredom must have gotten the better of her, as in 1983 she returned to New York, divorced her husband and began working in colour. During this period, a new photographic trend known as "domestic photography" was born, in reaction to "street photography". The great-granddaughter of one of the founders of Lehman Brothers - her grandfather was a photographer, her great-uncle a donor to the Metropolitan Museum and her mother was a model for Harper's Bazaar before becoming an interior decorator - she documents her family life in vivid, almost theatrical photographs.

"A keen observer of family rituals, Tina Barney is particularly interested in the relationships between generations in the domestic environment. Her color and often large-format group portraits, which at first glance appear to be family snapshots, are for the most part carefully staged by the artist, creating composed tableaux that establish a dialogue with classical painting. Others spontaneously capture fleeting moments of interaction between the subjects." Explains Quentin Bajac , director of the museum and curator of the exhibition, who adds: "Tina Barney is sociologically an anomaly. She was not destined to become a photographer." Upon entering the museum, one is greeted by dozens of large prints, both black and white and colour, depicting her sister Jill and celebrities such as Julianne Moore , family compositions and portraits... Some photos are purely accidental, such as "The Two Schoolgirls", 2001, which portrays two students met at Eaton, or "The Reception", 1985, which shows her sister Jill in a gold dress, her face turned towards a bouquet of flowers, while her other sister Tina, from behind, wears a white dress with an asymmetrical cut. Other images resemble choreographic staging. This retrospective of imposing works (1.22 x 1.52 m) is a social fresco of the very wealthy America she calls home.

L&#39;OFFICIEL: When do you consider an image perfect? <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">TINA BARNEY: The perfect image is one that contains a narrative. This narrative can be born from a very simple composition, it is the subject that must have the power, and this changes depending on the circumstances I choose. LO: Your productions are somehow cinematic, have you never been tempted by cinema? <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">TB: I have tried making short films in Super 8 and video, but it is always difficult because I like to improvise and not have a preconceived structure or plot, and it is not the best way to use these media. LO: There is often an underlying sense of drama in your images. Is this intentional or unconscious? <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">TB: The drama you see comes from the life of the viewer. And since each of us has a particular experience, the drama you see is probably not what I had in mind. LOl What is your favorite image from this retrospective and why? <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">TB: My favorite image from the Jeu de Paume exhibition is &quot;Jill and the TV,&quot; which I took in 1989. I have been photographing my sister Jill since 1982 in different ways, and I realized that this photo was the most minimalist in terms of form and concept, and therefore the most complex in every respect. Making a portrait in which the subject is facing the viewer, remaining still, is the most difficult situation of all, and therefore the most interesting for me.

LO: What is your relationship with fashion in your work? And is it somehow linked to your mother&#39;s modeling career? <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">TB: We never know what influenced our lives, but the fact that my mother was a model and that her mother, my grandmother, kept numerous albums containing hundreds of newspaper clippings about her daughter&#39;s career, must have certainly influenced me... In addition to the fact that she was extraordinarily elegant throughout her life. LO: Which celebrities have you enjoyed working with the most? <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">TB: I don&#39;t often photograph celebrities, but Florence Welch , of Florence and the Machine, was one of the best models I ever photographed. LO: Is there anyone in particular you would like to photograph? <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">TB: Oh, there are so many wonderful male actors I would have loved to have met, but I can&#39;t remember at the moment.

Tina Barney, "Family Ties": the major photographic exhibition in Paris

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