Barbara Crane
US photographer, one of the first foreigners permitted to take pictures in China
BORN:

Chicago, United States, 1928

EDUCATION:

1948-1950: New York University, BA in art history

1964-1966: Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology

CAREER:

1964: New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois

1967: School of the Art Institute of Chicago

1969-1983: Visiting professor at numerous colleges, including the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston, University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, Cornell University

1995: Professor emerita of photography, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

WORK:

Crane's photography has featured in over 90 solo exhibitions since 1965, and seven retrospective exhibitions have been mounted to date. The most recent, Barbara Crane: Challenging Vision, opened at the Chicago Cultural Center in October 2009 before traveling to the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Texas and the Griffin Museum of Photography in Massachusetts.

EXHIBITIONS:

George Eastman House/International Museum of Photography, Rochester, New York

Art Institute of Chicago

Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago

Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

Museum of Modern Art, New York

Library of Congress, Washington

Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona

Bibliotheque Nationale and FNDC, Paris

Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Greece

WestLicht Museum of Photography, Vienna

HONORS AND AWARDS:

1974: National Endowment for the Arts grant

1979: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in Photography

1988: National Endowment for the Arts grant

2001: Illinois Arts Council Artists Fellowship Award in Photography

2006: Honored as a distinguished artist by the Union League Club of Chicago and Brown University

2009: First recipient of the Ruth Horwich Award to a Famous Chicago Artist, conferred by the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs

2013: Honored by the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago

2015: Silver Camera Award from the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College, Chicago

2016: Professional Achievement Award from the Illinois Institute of Technology

The US photographer who captured changing China

Barbara Crane, now 90, was one of the first foreigners allowed to snap images around the nation
Hong Xiao in Chicago
Chengdu, Sichuan province, in 1985. [Photo by Barbara Crane]

"I photographed their beds," she recalled. "There were two kinds of beds: one with mosquito netting, the other was in brick recesses in the wall. ... In some villages, the pigs slept in the house with the people.

"The people shared their lives with me, invited me for meals and gave me so much. I tried to convey it through the photos taken in China."

Because Crane was allowed to go where foreigners previously were not permitted, she headed to some remote areas. On her way, she took all means of transportation, including a tractor. "At that time, I couldn't find any cabs, but I wanted to interview and see people in the real rural areas, so one way of transportation was by tractor," she said. "The dust was covering my eyes."

Shen Wei, a college student at Fudan University in Shanghai at the time, was selected by the government to serve as Crane's translator. She traveled with the photographer for a month and witnessed firsthand the chemistry between Crane and the Chinese villagers.

China was underdeveloped at that time, "but I was used to that", Shen said. "I didn't feel very proud. But she (Crane) captured things that Chinese in those days might not have recorded, discovered totally from an American perspective."

Shen, now a business executive shuttling between the US and China, kept in touch with Crane after the trip.

"From her perspective, China was so unique. She found special beauty," Shen said. "She loved people, and people loved her back. That's the amazing part - they could sense this American was genuinely interested in their lives, in their culture. They surrounded her with love."

The images that captured Crane's unique perspective on a historic period in China, however, have never been published.

Barbara Crane
US photographer, one of the first foreigners permitted to take pictures in China
BORN:

Chicago, United States, 1928

EDUCATION:

1948-1950: New York University, BA in art history

1964-1966: Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology

CAREER:

1964: New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois

1967: School of the Art Institute of Chicago

1969-1983: Visiting professor at numerous colleges, including the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston, University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, Cornell University

1995: Professor emerita of photography, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

WORK:

Crane's photography has featured in over 90 solo exhibitions since 1965, and seven retrospective exhibitions have been mounted to date. The most recent, Barbara Crane: Challenging Vision, opened at the Chicago Cultural Center in October 2009 before traveling to the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Texas and the Griffin Museum of Photography in Massachusetts.

EXHIBITIONS:

George Eastman House/International Museum of Photography, Rochester, New York

Art Institute of Chicago

Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago

Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

Museum of Modern Art, New York

Library of Congress, Washington

Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona

Bibliotheque Nationale and FNDC, Paris

Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Greece

WestLicht Museum of Photography, Vienna

HONORS AND AWARDS:

1974: National Endowment for the Arts grant

1979: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in Photography

1988: National Endowment for the Arts grant

2001: Illinois Arts Council Artists Fellowship Award in Photography

2006: Honored as a distinguished artist by the Union League Club of Chicago and Brown University

2009: First recipient of the Ruth Horwich Award to a Famous Chicago Artist, conferred by the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs

2013: Honored by the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago

2015: Silver Camera Award from the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College, Chicago

2016: Professional Achievement Award from the Illinois Institute of Technology

The US photographer who captured changing China

Barbara Crane, now 90, was one of the first foreigners allowed to snap images around the nation
Hong Xiao in Chicago
Chengdu, Sichuan province, in 1985. [Photo by Barbara Crane]

"I photographed their beds," she recalled. "There were two kinds of beds: one with mosquito netting, the other was in brick recesses in the wall. ... In some villages, the pigs slept in the house with the people.

"The people shared their lives with me, invited me for meals and gave me so much. I tried to convey it through the photos taken in China."

Because Crane was allowed to go where foreigners previously were not permitted, she headed to some remote areas. On her way, she took all means of transportation, including a tractor. "At that time, I couldn't find any cabs, but I wanted to interview and see people in the real rural areas, so one way of transportation was by tractor," she said. "The dust was covering my eyes."

Shen Wei, a college student at Fudan University in Shanghai at the time, was selected by the government to serve as Crane's translator. She traveled with the photographer for a month and witnessed firsthand the chemistry between Crane and the Chinese villagers.

China was underdeveloped at that time, "but I was used to that", Shen said. "I didn't feel very proud. But she (Crane) captured things that Chinese in those days might not have recorded, discovered totally from an American perspective."

Shen, now a business executive shuttling between the US and China, kept in touch with Crane after the trip.

"From her perspective, China was so unique. She found special beauty," Shen said. "She loved people, and people loved her back. That's the amazing part - they could sense this American was genuinely interested in their lives, in their culture. They surrounded her with love."

The images that captured Crane's unique perspective on a historic period in China, however, have never been published.