
Tina Barney
Tina Barney photographs life in WASP heaven—sprawling seaside estates in Rhode Island, a lavish Upper East Side apartment, and the like. Most of the people in her scenes have a languid, self-assured attractiveness, as if they’d just stepped out of a Calvin Klein ad. East Beach, 1984, for example, could be used in a lifestyle ad with virtually no changes: a tousled-haired guy in torn jeans and polo shin, sweater tied around his waist, roughhouses with a giggling young girl in the golden glow of sunset. Barney heightens the cloying sweetness of this idyllic picture-perfection through her technique: