Barbara Crane: Chicago Loop

by Sarah Anne McNear, Thomas Heagy, Barbara Crane

Hemmed in on three sides by the "El" and on the fourth by Lake Michigan, Chicago's downtown core is a vital conglomeration of architectural histories, from the birth of the skyscraper through to the perfection of International Style and onward toward post-modern eclecticism. The Loop, as the area is known, has long fascinated photographers; Barbara Crane is no exception. Between 1976 and 1978, she wheeled a bright-red leather golf bag around the neighborhood. It contained a 5-by-7 view camera, which she used to expose more than 500 negatives. Later edited down to a finished series of 90 pictures, and published here as a selection of 40, Crane's images capture the interstitial urban spaces that exist in between every building block of the Loop's circumscribed grid.
Essay by Sarah Anne McNear. Foreword by Thomas C. Heagy. 11.25 x 10.5 in.
40 duotone illustrations

64 pages, Hardcover

First published February 15, 2002

About the author

Sarah Anne McNear has over thirty years of experience in museums and cultural nonprofits, with a specialization in photography and community-based art education. She has held positions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Allentown Art Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art, where she was the Beaumont and Nancy Newhall Fellow in Photography. Most recently, McNear served as the deputy director of Aperture Foundation and the deputy director of the 92nd Street Y's School of the Arts, as well as the director of its Art Center. Prior to these roles, she was director of the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago. McNear is the author of several books on photography and has served on advisory committees for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Art in Architecture Program for the U.S. General Services Administration, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. She is currently a board member of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine, and Aperture Foundation. McNear lives in New York City.