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Art: Photography
Barbara Crane: Challenging Vision

When

Oct 3, 2009 – Jan 10, 2010

Mondays–Thursdays (8am–7pm)

Fridays (8–6pm)

Saturdays (9am–6pm)

Sundays (10am–6pm)

Where
Chicago Cultural Center (78 E Washington St, 312.744.6630)
Price
FREE
Details
http://www.explorechicago.org/city/en/things_see_do/event_landing/events/dca_tourism/barbara_crane__challenging.html
18

When walking through Barbara Crane's six-decade retrospective at the Cultural Center, it can be hard to imagine that a single career encompasses it all. Her photographs advance certain themes (urban life, nature) but are unusually diverse, as if Crane tacitly aspired to unlock all of photography's secrets single-handedly. It's a revelation of sorts to follow her nomadic engagement with the medium, from creative uses of multiple 35mm frames in the 1960s and '70s, to intimate color Polaroids in the '80s, to recent forays into digital terrain. Versatility can be a blessing, but Crane's lack of a signature style may have precluded a comfortable spot in the canon — the fact that photography was a man's game for a while didn't help either.

Karsten Lund